4. Digital currency. According to the Justice Department, between 1999 and 2005 child pornographers, hackers and identity thieves made use of E-gold, an online payment system in the Caribbean. Users provide an e-mail address to E-gold, then go to a currency exchange (like Cambist.net) to swap greenbacks, euros, yen and so forth for digital currency backed by gold; from there the customer is free to conduct anonymous transactions anywhere in the world. The feds indicted E-gold last year for money laundering and illegal money transmitting because it operated without an appropriate license. The company pleaded not guilty, and its lawyer, Andrew Ittleman, says E-gold fully complied with anti-money-laundering laws and did not need a license to operate.

The bad-mouthing about e-gold aside, how can anyone say cash is king in an era when the value of the US Dollar is falling by the day? In my opinion, gold is king, for value storage.

What are your thoughts?

We regret to inform you that we will no longer be supporting withdrawal by e-gold. We have other great alternatives for withdrawing money for North American and International users.

You can withdraw by check or bank transfer. We currently support over 35 countries for banking and withdrawal by check is sent by mail and may take up to 3 weeks depending on your location.

Alertpay seems to still support deposit via e-gold though - for a massive 20.5% fee.

Though Alertpay is open to users in virtually every country in the world, its localized banking services allows users in countries specifically listed for that to add or withdraw funds using their respective countries’ electronic banking platform. This undoubtedly brings about much convenience and ease-of-use for such users. Alertpay also allows users in such countries to maintain balances in their local currencies. Local currencies currently supported are: US Dollar, Euro, Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Pounds Sterling, New Zealand Dollar, Singapore Dollar, Malaysia Ringgit, South Africa Rand, Hong Kong Dollar and Lithuania Linai.

Well, even though Paypal frowns at exchanging money from their payment system directly for another, what you can do is simple.

Withdraw your money to your bank account and then pull the money to your paypal account from your bank account. Your bank account serves as a link between Alertpay and Paypal and you would not be breaking any rules whilst doing this.

This would only work if both Paypal and Alertpay support deposit and withdrawal for the country where your bank account is domiciled. These includes USA, Canada and many EU countries.

Tried, True and Visionary UBA Group Plc Embraces VTN Technology to power ecommerce in Nigeria

Laurel, MD USA : December 12, 2007

The largest bank in Nigeria  and Africa’s emerging global bank, United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) and LFR Communications, Inc., a ground breaking e-commerce provider, have set in motion technology that will literally shape the future of how e-business is conducted in Nigeria.

“VTN technology will affect the life of every Nigerian, allowing them the ease and freedom of instant and trouble free ecommerce transactions that is long overdue.”  said LFR CEO Peter Ojo.

“VTN” (Virtual Terminal Network), is a mobile/web payment backbone to power ecommerce transactions in Nigeria. Scheduled to launch in January 2008, anyone with access to the internet (home, office, cybercafes), or GSM phone, will have the ability to pay a merchant and receive payments online or via GSM phone in Nigeria in real-time.

VTN’s technology is leveraged on top of the 40 million GSM lines in Nigeria, one of the fastest growing GSM network in the world after China and over 8 million internet users ( up from 200,000 in 2002) with plenty of room for growth considering the dynamic population of over  140 million.

About LFR Communications:

LFR Communications, Inc. operates leading and diversified businesses in markets that are being transformed by the internet.

LFR, the pioneer company behind this technology and many ground-breaking technologies for global commerce, is one of few companies that has demonstrated a thorough understanding of the payment needs in Nigeria since 2003 with practical solutions to address the cash based economy.

About United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA):

United bank for Africa PLC is Nigeria’s largest bank with a total balance sheet gradually pushing towards the N2 trillion mark. UBA operates in multi-jurisdiction with presence in Nigeria, Ghana, the Cayman Islands, the United Kingdom and the United States. UBA’s aggressive expansion strategy means that it would have presence in every major financial center globally.

Widely regarded as the Lion King of the Nigerian banking industry, UBA is poised to become the biggest global bank out of Africa. UBA has by far the largest share of Nigeria’s growing banking population with over 6 million customers and an overwhelming dominance in the number of issued debit and credit cards.

UBA also has the largest network of business offices in sub-Saharan Africa (about 700), about 1000 ATMs, an impressive network of POS terminals and several industry firsts to its credit. UBA’s world-class customer-centric products serve diverse customer segments in the markets it plays in – a one-stop-shop for financial services.

UBA has a plethora of awards giving credence to their performance in their chosen markets. Industry observers strongly believe that UBA, with its visionary management led by Tony Elumelu, has what it takes to dominate financial services in Africa.

UBA’s credentials support LFR’s decision to partner with UBA to launch this landmark project for the Nigerian market. VTN is expected to change the way we work, do business and in deed the way we live!!!
To register as a user of VTN, please visit: http://www.virtualterminalnetwork.com

Partnership enquiries, please contact: partnership@virtualterminalnetwork.com

New today, PayPal now offers account balance withdrawals to Visa-branded credit, debit, or prepaid cards in 26 international markets. This feature greatly improves the utility of PayPal accounts in these markets and is accomplished through an easy 3-step process.

This new feature is particularly valuable to PayPal account holders in markets where customers could use PayPal to send money, but had limited ways to receive or withdraw funds. A good example is Brazil. In the past, customers in Brazil could only withdraw funds via a paper check. Now, Brazilian account holders can withdraw money in a secure environment and have their funds available for online and offline purchases using their preferred Visa card.

It is also exciting for our Italian customers where local PostePay cards are widely used. The new withdrawal method gives them the freedom to easily move funds from their PayPal accounts to the payment cards they prefer to use online or offline.

This new functionality is available in: Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Cyprus, Estonia, Gibraltar, Iceland, Indonesia, India, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Philippines, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, UAE, and Uruguay.

Today’s news offers great opportunities for PayPal to become even more relevant to merchants in many of our international markets. We are constantly evaluating new functionality around the globe, so stay tuned and visit our PayPal Offerings Worldwide page for updates.

The new feature will cost $5 per withdrawal and will take 5 to 7 business days to be completed. It would also have a minimum of $10 per transaction and a daily maximum withdrawal limit of $500.

Date:       Fri, 28 Sep 2007 09:45:06 +0000 [09:45:06 AM GMT]
From:      TGE NEWS <support@CASHEQE.ORG>
To:     xxx@xxxx.xxx
Subject:      TGE Newsletter. Tired of E-Gold? Try Casheqe!
Welcome to CASHEQE.ORG!

Casheqe team is proud to present you new digital currency with unlimited possibilites:

Opening an account is not just completely free - We pay you 10 US Dollars for it.

Merchant? Take another 100 US Dollars for processing payments with Casheqe.

Casheqe is fully compatible with major credit cards and payment systems:
Visa, MasterCard, American Express, PayPal, E-Bullion, Pecunix, E-Gold.
Planning to add more soon. You can pay directly to any e-currency account straight from your Casheqe account.

Funding and withdrawing Casheqe is totally automated
(however it takes 24h to clear PayPal transfers).

Use Casheqe ATM Cards for funding and withdrawing money in in local ATM machines. Use Casheqe as a tool for cashing out other digital currencies.

Easy API/SCI. Start accepting casheqe payments in minutes!

Get paid, stay paid. No chargebacks - payments can’t be undone.

Extremely low fees for transactions. Use Casheqe as an auto exchanger for your e-currency needs.

There are no fees for opening Casheqe account. You are just few minutes away from account activation.

Get on CASHEQE.ORG to sign up!

Best Regards,
Casheqe Team
support@CASHEQE.ORG

The scam is very similar to that of the now dormant GoldxCash.

Keep an eye out for:

More purchasing flexibility online and offline when we release in the next few weeks the AlertPay Debit MasterCards. (stay tuned for more)

AlertPay is a privately owned and managed company founded in 2004 with its office headquarters in Montreal, Canada. AlertPay offers any business or consumer with email to send and receive internet payments securely, quickly and cost-effectively.

Very recently, Gambling911 raised an alarm about this issue:

A series of emails have been sent out unsolicited asking customers to confirm payments made to their MoneyBookers account.  In so doing, the link they are asked to follow takes them to another website.

“These scammers will then obtain all the Moneybookers customer financial information,” expressed Payton O’Brien of Gambling911.com.

Always confirm payments directly from the Moneybookers.com website.

“Never click on links from emails, especially unsolicited emails.  There is no need and with today’s countless scams infiltrating online payment processors, any payment solution requiring verification via email should be avoided like the plague.”

This phishing problem is even more common with Paypal which has over 120 million accounts. So, users beware!

Aside the increased usage amongst other digital gold currencies, new ones are coming-up. This is as a result of the recent legal troubles e-gold/Omnipay has been having the the United States Department of Justice.

That said, I’d point out that c-gold promises to do many of the things e-gold does, an more. The one I find most significant is that they offer some verification for each account. Unlike e-gold’s anonymity with has attracted shady characters to their system.

According to DigitalMoneyWorld:

Verified accounts require ID, utility bills and other personal information. Why? The c-gold operators understand that the ‘The Know Your Customer’ (KYC) rules/regulations/laws spanning multiple jurisdictions around the globe are very important in today’s digital economy in order to combat terrorist funding, money laundering, child pornography, copyright infringements and to help eliminate attempts to abuse the c-gold system.

What can make the Malaysian digital gold currency promising? It operates online and offline, easy gold deposit and redemption, multilingual website (soon), customer support.
What can I say? The more the merrier, but only the strong will survive.

As at the time of blogging, c-gold’s website revealed the following stats:

8-Jul-2007 8:47:42 AM GMT

c-gold System Activity in the Past 24 hours
New Accounts: 23
Users Accessing Acounts: 31
Number of Spends: 2
Spent Weight (G): 131.104

Balance Summary
Number of Funded Accounts: 7
Avg Funded Account Balance (G): 742.8571
c-gold in circulation (G): 5200

e-bullion and webmoney especially, have been seeing more patronage with online investment schemes and digital gold currency exchangers alike. The most recent move was made by CashCards Int. In a recent email to all their users, their CEO, Steve Renner, wrote about the addition of e-bullion exchange:

= = = = = = = = = = E-Bullion Exchange = = = = = = = = = =
We have been getting 4-5 emails a day from our  Members asking about E-Bullion. People want to Exchange their E-Gold for E-Bullion.   After serious consideration we have decided to go ahead and accept E-Bullion orders.   You can now Exchange your E-Gold for E-Bullion.   The system is not fully automated yet, but it  will be by next week.   So in the mean time, if you want to Exchange  for E-Bullion now, just transfer your E-Gold  as usual, and then send us an email with  your E-Bullion account number and we will  make the transfer for you.

Capitalex.com Inc. is a global gold merchant corporation, established in the Republic of Panama as a subsidiary of the International Currency Conglomerate (ICC).

In business since March 2004, Capitalex.com is dedicated to making a decisive difference in the lives of its clients by providing them with Superior customer service, Rapid order execution, Competitive prices and special offers.

As 0730 GMT today 2nd July 2007, a check on www.capitalex.com simply displayed thier logo and the follow text:

support@capitalex.com
Capitalex.com recommends:
Reliable exchanger: Instant Gold Exchange
Innovative new e-currency: Loom.cc

No mention is made as to their reason for shutting down, on their blog.

Capitalex.com gained much popularity of the years, as a result of their professional e-currency exchange services. They also endeared themselves to their customers through their “Real Money Review” newsletter/publication. They had also been blogging extensively about e-currencies, scams, e-currency usage surveys, their own services and until recently, were also offering Virtual Credit Cards for sale though theirs were rather pricey.

Capitalex.com was also behind the extensive campaign against INTGold, until the “ecurrency” folded-up. See intgoldsucks.com

They even at one time, made offers to clients to invest their gold with them, so they could share the profit at a later time. Capitalex.com seemed formidable and invincible.

Capitalex.com was not listed as one of the e-currency exchangers who lost some gold, when e-gold Ltd’s troubles began. So, one cannot say they lost their gold deposit. More so, Capitalex.com is not based in the USA. Their websites are currently hosted in Malaysia.

Located in Panama City, the Crossroads of the Americas, Capitalex.com offers timely and efficient gold merchant services to customers around the world, 365 days a year.

Words have been going round on various blogs and forums, that Capitalex.com is a scam. The e-currency exchanger has however been refuting some of the allegations, on their blog, as recently as 2nd June 2007.

That their main website can close down today without any announcement to customers or information on their blog, can only make one suspicious and speculative.

Are you a Capitalex.com staff? Are you a customer? Do you have any information about the unavailability of Capitalex.com? Share your thoughts by posting a comment.

Alertpay had before now only allowed users in the USA and Canada to withdraw to US and Canadian banks respectively but this is about to change. According to a recent release by the company:

[...]Opening up the world

As of Monday June 18th 2007, all AlertPay members in 234 countries around the world can now add or withdraw funds using their Canadian or US based bank accounts. [...]

This adds to the list of positives for Alertpay. The company has already announced that there’s more to come, in commemoration of its 2 years anniversary so stay tuned.

OmniPay temporarily suspends exchange to transition to OmniPay Africa

Effective immediately, G&SR will be leasing the OmniPay business to OmniPay Africa. All OmniPay exchanges will now involve e-gold transfers and money payments into/out of OmniPay Africa’s e-gold and bank accounts respectively. G&SR has contracted to serve as the Operator of OmniPay but will not be a party to actual exchanges.

In terms of immediate impacts:

• The OmniPay exchange service will suspend operation pending provisioning of a suitable bank account for OmniPay Africa. It is anticipated this service interruption will start May 24, 2007 with service resuming on or about June 18, 2007.
• With resumption, all bank wires from customers must be directed to
  the new bank coordinates which will be posted on the omnipay.com website.

The original plan was for OmniPay Africa to organize as a licensee of G&SR, the US company that owns OmniPay. A substantial development effort was underway to support the additional requirements for over-the-counter exchange operations such as biometric validation. However, recent actions of the US government, originating from a long-standing and misguided animus on the part of the US Secret Service, necessitate immediate action. Specifically, SEB Bank in Estonia has notified G&SR it is closing its bank account at close of business May 25, 2007 explicitly because of the Press Release from the US DOJ.

We regret the temporary interruption of OmniPay services. Just as the US government’s recent actions in seizing e-gold accounts of e-gold Ltd., G&SR, The Bullion Exchange, AnyGoldNow, IceGold, GitGold, The Denver Gold Exchange, GoldPouch Express and 1MDC (and forcing G&SR to liquidate the seized assets!) have severely damaged not only these exchange businesses but also their innumerable customers, their forcing this complex transition to be performed on an emergency basis is simply shameful.

We do not however regret the transfer of OmniPay responsibilities to OmniPay Africa. As will become abundantly clear in coming months, the OmniPay Africa team is highly qualified to guide OmniPay to a higher level, a genuinely global service that will foster a beneficial surge in e-gold’s emergence while bringing significant advantages to emerging economies.

Strategic Background

A major strategic emphasis for e-gold is to provide sophisticated remote payments capabilities to the majority of mankind underserved by or excluded by the banking system. An important focus is international remittances - payments from migrant workers living in advanced economies sending a portion of their earnings to their home country. For many developing economies, migrant remittances constitute a significant portion of foreign exchange income and even GDP. Traditional remittance mechanisms, however, are expensive and inflexible. It is estimated that lowering the net cost of remittances by a few percentage points could measurably enhance economic development. There is also increasing awareness that non-traditional banking such as micro-credit facilities can also aid in bootstrapping lesser developed economies.

OmniPay Africa, an entirely non-US company, majority owned by prominent business leaders from the Francophone countries of West Africa, was therefore organized to extend the usefulness of e-gold by providing support for over-the-counter exchange and by fostering the integration of e-gold into micro-credit lending institutions. The combination of e-gold (settling the international transfer of value with no need for a financial intermediary) and OmniPay (offering standardized, reliable, low cost exchange to/from local currency) will serve as a flexible low cost alternative to the traditional systems.

OmniPay is a trademark of Gold & Silver Reserve, Inc.
e-gold, e-silver, e-platinum, Better Money, AUG, AGG, PTG, PDG are trademarks of e-gold Ltd.

YouTube Video >>>

A check on Alertpay this morning reveals that e-gold deposits are now accepted again, but at 5.5%  which is different from the old 4% rate.

AlertPay.com, a privately owned and managed company founded in 2004, is an electronic wallet (e-wallet) payment system enabling any business or consumer with email to send and receive internet payments securely, quickly and cost-effectively. With its office headquarters in Montreal, Canada, AlertPay is available to users all around world.

e-gold is a digital gold currency operated by Gold & Silver Reserve Inc. under e-gold Ltd., and is a system which allows the instant transfer of gold ownership between users. e-gold Ltd. is incorporated in Nevis, Lesser Antilles.

e-gold Deposits Offline

We are sorry. Unfortunately we cannot accept any more egold at this time due to certain circumstances.
For more details please see http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2007/April/07_crm_301.html

An attempt to withdraw to e-gold however, did not display any such error.

Alertpay had hitherto allowed users to fund their accounts via e-gold but this has been temporarily disabled as a result of an indictment by the United States Department of Justice against the key officers at e-gold Ltd about aiding child porn sellers, money launderers and other criminal activities.

1. The website promises outrageous guaranteed returns on investment
2. The website offers referral commissions in order to promote the recruiting of more victims to this scam.
3. The website only accepts e-gold as payment, due to the anonymity it provides. (This is not to indict e-gold)
4. The website collects personal information on  insecure pages, including account numbers.
5. There is no business address or contact phone number listed on the sites.

The  question any savvy individual would ask is: “What legitimate financial company would do such things?”Whats more? Wikipedia’s description of HYIP makes it even easier to tell:

Online HYIP schemes rarely last for the long term. Overwhelming number of cases suggest that HYIPs are Ponzi schemes, in which new investors provide the cash to pay a profit to existing investors, which they typically then withdraw. This approach allows the scam to continue as long as new investors are found and/or old investors leave their money in the scheme, known as compounding (because even higher profits are promised).

The introduction of e-currencies has made it possible for HYIPs to operate on the internet and cross international boundaries, and to accept large numbers of small investments. HYIPs usually accept deposits by either e-currency, like e-gold, e-bullion and INTGold, or use specialist third party payment processors like AlertPay, SolidTrustPay, CEPTrust, TriStarMoneyChangers and StormPay. HYIPs typically offer a significant incentive commission (for example, 9% of invested funds) for members to attract and refer new investors.

Most HYIPs disclose little or no detail about the underlying management, location, or other aspects of how money is to be invested, and relatively little information (other than asserting that they do various types of trading on various stock and other exchanges) on how they actually generate the returns they purport. They are sometimes presented with some form of an emotional appeal, appeals for faith, and promises that they will help investors achieve financial freedom.

Ultimately, it is up to the investor to decide but following the guidelines above could save you some money.

In an email to its users, Moneybookers wrote:

Dear [Account owner name removed],

Today, we have a special surprise for you: The relaunch of our Moneybookers website!
Just go to www.moneybookers.com and check it out!

You will find a more modern and lighter design, combined with an improved overall usability. Especially the navigation is now much easier making Moneybookers more convenient for you.

Of course, we kept all the basic functionalities the same and even raised our exceptional high security standards!

Enjoy exploring our new website!

Your Moneybookers Team

What do you think about the new look? Share your thoughts here.

Their customer support before now, had been via telephone, fax and email. Their telephone were only answered by a customer service representative during US working hours, and on business days only. Customers were asked to leave a message and their phone number, at other times. Well, Graphcard would only call you back if you left a US phone number in your message.

Email was hardly ever replied. I have written them to cancel my “virtual address” because I have no use for it now, but they have not done that, after several emails. They keep charging me $9.99 monthly for a service I am not using. When I eventually used it, they could not send me the exact forwarding cost. They only emailed me once, to inform me that the letters would be returned on a certain date. I promptly replied, but never heard from them again.
Going to Graphcard’s contact page (on their website) now shows that they have added an additional button labelled: “Online Support”. A click on the button leads you to a sophisticated helpdesk system powered by Expinion.net. It includes an FAQ section, Knowledgebase, and a facility for submitting questions to Customer Service.

This new addition should make their customer service much better since the process will be automated. Customers will only contact them if they cannot find answers to their problems in the FAQ and/or Knowledgebase.

This is a good development and I can only hope that it will be well utilized by Graphcard users, and run properly by Graphcard staff.

January 11, 2007

e-gold® Celebrates Ten Year Anniversary

MELBOURNE, Fla.– e-gold, one of the world’s foremost Internet payment systems, celebrates its tenth anniversary this month. As the pioneer of Internet payments, e-gold has flourished due to its strong fundamental principles of freedom from default and finality of settlement. e-gold has settled over 70M transactions, serves customers in 165 countries, and holds nearly 3.5 metric tonnes of gold.

e-gold has continued to successfully serve its customers, while other payment systems have come and gone losing millions of investment dollars. e-gold has always held true to meeting its User obligations. When merchants are paid they stay paid, and consumers can make payments without compromising their personal information online.

Dr. Douglas Jackson, founder and CEO of e-gold, commented on this milestone for his company: “It has not always been easy, but we have never deviated from our original vision. While we have seen others fail, we remain highly committed to the goal of bringing, for the first time in history, to people of any financial means across the globe, a secure payment mechanism at a fraction of the cost of any other system.”

e-gold is all about security. e-gold is a robust, secure system including its AccSent program and Secure Random Keyboard that combats password theft and unauthorized account access. e-gold represents one of the most secure mechanisms available to hold and transmit value across the internet.

e-gold is about privacy, but it is not anonymous. e-gold users can be assured that their online transactions are private, but those who may wish to hide illicit transactions should know they are not anonymous. e-gold’s advanced investigative protocols will identify and stop illicit users.

e-gold is about low costs. For any transaction, from micro payments to large values, e-gold is the lowest cost payment system available. And unlike charge cards, e-gold has no risk of chargebacks. e-gold is truly global, operating in nearly every country, offering isolation from fluctuations in individual national currencies.

Despite being new, innovative, and sometimes misunderstood, e-gold has thrived to become one of the world’s leading payment systems. Ten years old this month, e-gold is eagerly looking forward to the next ten years. For information, call US 1-321-956-1200 ext 127 or visit www.e-gold.com

e-gold is an alternative payment system that mobilizes the value of gold, as money, for Internet payments and funds transfers. e-gold builds upon the fundamental strength in proven customer demand for gold as a secure store of value. All e-gold is backed by a 100% reserve of physical gold in recognized repositories. e-gold offers customers a secure and robust payment system that minimizes exchange risk, operates globally 24/7, has finality of payment with no chargebacks, uses automated interfaces, and is low cost. Operational since 1996, e-gold has settled over 70M transactions, serves customers in 165 countries, and holds nearly 3.5 metric tonnes of gold.

Technorati tags: e-gold, paypal, graphcard

In an email to its users dated 3rd January 2007, “The Graphcard Team” wrote:

Did you know that we now accept Egold payments to fund your Graphcard account? Likewise you can fund your egold instantly from your Graphcard account.
Our members requested this feature a while ago, we have now integrated fully to accept Egold payments from non-restricted egold accounts.
Many of our members have tried this and found the entire process to be more convenient and straightforward.

If you have egold account, you should try it today. Minimum allowed $10

One can safely assume that e-gold has much more users than Graphcard. The e-gold payment system started as way back as 1996 and today claims about 3 million accounts, out of which about a quarter are active.

With this full integration on the part of Graphcard, users of both online payment platforms can enjoy the convience of buying Visa gift cards from Graphcard, which can be used online, just like credit cards.

Customary to Graphcard, no notice was given before and after.

Before then, I occasionally transfer e-gold to Graphcard, then to paypal. Though the charges were high, I still had to do it, in times of emergencies.

e-gold

Graphcard now forces its users to register a particular e-gold account, with their Graphcard. Perhaps, this might be to reduce the instance of error, on the part of users. Whatever it is, it is always better that Graphcard informs its users, before taking such decisions - if they want to earn more credibility.

What does Graphcard do?

Graphcard acts as a means of payment for 1/3 (250 million) internet users in over 260 countries who don’t have access to traditional credit cards. The market is projected to be one third of the world’s 750 million internet users.

Graphcard enables Internet users to spend cash online. At least a third of Internet users around the world do not have access to the traditional credit cards to pay with. Also those who have credit cards but prefer to pay by cash can do so securely online.

Note: Websites that transfer e-gold to paypal (or vice versa) are very hard to come by. Many of the existing sites claiming to exchange e-gold for paypal, are scams. This might not be unconnected to strict regulations on the part of paypal, and/or high risk of fraud, on the part of e-currency exchangers.

Well, some months later, I fell for it too. By then, I had forgotten the website Capitalex was warning about.

GoldXCash is a scam
Submitted by Capitalex.com on Tuesday, January 31, 2006 - 17:11

This is a public warning against a scam exchanger called GoldXCash. Not only did they steal our website design, they are in fact an outright fraud as has been confirmed by many e-currency holders who tried to use them and lost their money. We do not link to the GoldXCash scam website here but they are not difficult to find, and even easier to stay away from.

I had e-gold and needed paypal funds urgently. After a lengthy Google search, I decided on Goldxcash. Yes, GoldxCash! I was fooled by their Paypal account being verified, and the clean interface of their website. The website seemed sophisticated, and promised to deliver my paypal funds in two hours - even if it was a weekend or holiday!

Surprisingly, when I tried to check their paypal account’s status this morning, I got this:

paypal@goldxcash.com is NOT PayPal Verified

What it Means to be Verified

To become Verified, a PayPal member in Malaysia must enroll in our Expanded Use Program. When a member completes Expanded Use enrollment, he undergoes additional checks that increase security for all PayPal users. Please note that PayPal’s verification system does not constitute an endorsement of a member, nor a guarantee of a member’s business practices. You should always consider other indicators when evaluating members, including length of PayPal membership and reputation scores (on eBay or other auction sites, if applicable).

I tried sending $2 to their paypal account, and got this “This recipient is not yet registered. PayPal will send an email to the recipient explaining how to complete your transaction.” Of course, I was sending no money. I simply wanted to re-confirm the status of their paypal account. Apparently, Paypal has terminated their account.
According to Goldxcash’s scammy website:

Welcome to  GoldXCash, the internet’s first independent digital currency exchange provider, serving the digital currency needs of thousands of clients. GoldXCash is a company you can trust to look after all your e-gold needs.
Our fees are the lowest on the net, and our customer service is outstanding.

Goldxcash.com is a Reliable E-currency Exchange Provider. We  support exchanging from Gold e-currency to PayPal, StormPay, MoneyBookers, Bank Wire, Check/ Money  Order, Western Union / Money Gram, more options will come soon. Exchanging e-currency has never been easier - all you need to do is just make order at our site. Trade with confidence. We Offering extremely competitive rates, fast, dependable and efficient service.  100% private - we will never ask any information solely for verification purposes.
All information we request is essential for the exchange process. The Client will receive his money, quickly and securely.

Do not fall for this! I sent them $50 e-gold and never received any paypal funds. I even send a money request via paypal, and they cancelled it later. Be warned. Beware of Goldxcash. Its a scam!

Dear Sirs
Gold & Silver Reserve (G&SR), Inc has suspended all of Iranian accounts on 24 November 2006 without any notification. we are a group of Iranian people who are working in international markets by e-gold accounts due to lack of reliable Internet banking and high jobless in Iran. we wonder why (G&SR), Inc as a US company is fighting with Iranian people as our government is doing the same ! the tele communication company of Iran who has all the the power of Internet policies in Iran and is a governmental company blocked access to e-gold website about 1 year ago , to cut Iranian communications and businesses with the world, and now (G&SR), Inc is helping them to keep Iranian people isolated from the world. it seems we should tell to our government that they have some partners in US !
we think it is against the announced US policies , blocking the money of Iranian individuals and not to let them work and communicate with the world doesn’t help to expand democracy in Iran and gives Iran government the opportunity to advertise its anti-US policies.
we think if US wants to stay popular in Iran should not fight with Iranian people instead of Iran government , blocking the money of Iranian youths doesn’t give them a good feeling about US ! I can say 95% of these account belongs to youths below 25 years old.
if you want to do something useful , block the terrorism funds and budget. blocking the accounts of some normal people trying to work and live in this country will not help you.

WE ASK FOR IMMEDIATE ACTIVATION OF OUR ACCOUNTS BY (G&SR), Inc.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

See http://www.e-goldstrong.com/

It is interesting to know that this is the time e-gold chooses to wake up from its deep slumber, and realize that Iran is amongst the countries that OFAC bans US institutions from doing business with. Speculations are rife that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) forced e-gold to freeze all Iranian accounts.

According to Wikipedia, “The Office of Foreign Assets Control (or OFAC) is an office of the United States Department of the Treasury that administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U.S. foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign countries, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, and those engaged in activities related to the unapproved proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”

According to the OFAC website, its sanctions apply to all U.S. persons and entities (companies, non-profit groups, government agencies, etc.) wherever located.

It will be interesting to note that Iran is not the only country on the OFAC’s list, which also includes Belarus, Burma, Ivory Coast, Cuba, D.R. of the Congo, Liberia, North Korea, Sudan, Syria and Zimbabwe. One can only wonder what happens to e-gold users in these countries.

The website looks every bit very professional and convincing (many scam websites do), but do not fall for it.

Well, I registered, but did not enter my e-gold account details. It simply did not make sense to me. You claim to be offering an alternative e-currency, yet you are willing to pay me bonus via another e-currency. It sounded fishy. So I thought, if gcGold was really going to pay me, they should pay into the new gcGold account I was creating.

The confirmation email soon arrived, but was delivered into Yahoo! Spam folder. Hmmnn…

From gcGold.com Thu Dec 21 20:50:06 2006
X-Apparently-To: xxxxxxxx@yahoo.com via 206.190.48.127; Thu, 21 Dec 2006 20:50:09 -0800
X-YahooFilteredBulk: 67.15.250.2
X-Originating-IP: [67.15.250.2]
Return-Path:
Authentication-Results: mta465.mail.mud.yahoo.com from=; domainkeys=neutral (no sig)
Received: from 67.15.250.2 (EHLO serv01.siteground129.com) (67.15.250.2)
by mta465.mail.mud.yahoo.com with SMTP; Thu, 21 Dec 2006 20:50:09 -0800
Received: from gcgold by serv01.siteground129.com with local (Exim 4.63)
(envelope-from )
id 1GxcMA-00022C-NL
for nova3web@yahoo.com; Thu, 21 Dec 2006 22:50:06 -0600
To: nova3web@yahoo.com
Subject: Welcome to gcGold.com!
From: gcGold.com
Reply-to: accrobot@gcgold.com
Message-Id:
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 22:50:06 -0600
X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - serv01.siteground129.com
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - yahoo.com
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [32996 503] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - serv01.siteground129.com
X-Source: /usr/bin/php
X-Source-Args: /usr/bin/php signup.php
X-Source-Dir: gcgold.com:/public_html
Content-Length: 2088

Welcome to gcGold!

Congratulations Mr. Oluniyi !
You have successfully opened an account at gcGold.com,
the web’s PREMIER Online E-Currency Payments System!

YOUR ACCOUNT NUMBER

Your gcGold(R) Account Number is: 1058
PLEASE SAVE YOUR ACCOUNT NUMBER!
You will need this account number every time
you sign-in to gcGold.com.

ACCOUNT ACTIVATION

Please proceed to account activation page:
http://gcgold.com/activation.php?id=34b607a4fa68f349b916a4dd0649abab

At gcGold, we offer our customers a cutting-edge, global digital
e-currency system coupled with extremely low fees and the finest
personal service in the precious metals e-currency industry.
You are ALWAYS number one at gcGold.com and we are confident
you will want to make us your favorite choice for all your
e-currency needs.

Please review all of the following important information about
your new gcGold account.

———————————-

GCGOLD DEBIT CARDS

Worldwide ATM (and POS compatible), gcGold Debit Card
offers you the ultimate in convenience and true global e-currency!
Please visit our website at http://www.gcGold.com/debitcard.php
for further information. It takes just a few minutes to complete
the simple online application.

PASSWORDS

If you forget your password, please go to our FORGOT PASSWORD link and
follow the directions. After we receive your e-mail, an gcGold
Customer Service representative will telephone you as soon as
possible to assign a new password to your account.

gcGold support personnel and customer service employees are NEVER
permitted to ask you for your password under any circumstances. If
anyone, anywhere, ever asks you for your account password, you should
immediately suspect fraud and report it to our Customer Assistance
department support@gcGold.com at once.

BEWARE OF FRAUDULENT EMAILS

Please be advised that you may receive e-mails (that appear to be from
gcGold Support or Administration) asking you to sign into your
account to “verify” or update it; or a notice may say that your account
has been “targeted for fraudulent activity” and you must sign into your
account before it is deactivated; or e-mails will say that “your
account has been flagged” and will be put on immediate freeze status
unless you sign in and update it, etc. etc, etc..

BEWARE OF FRAUDULENT E-MAILS THAT APPEAR TO BE FROM GCGOLD
MANAGEMENT OR DOMAIN! NEVER CLICK ON ANY E-MAIL LINKS THAT ASK YOU TO
SIGN INTO YOUR GCGOLD ACCOUNT FOR ANY REASON.

HOW IT WORKS: Criminal hackers and thieves now bombard digital currency
holders with increasingly sophisticated, fraudulent e-mails that
contain all manner of malevolent tricks to try and capture your password
and perhaps steal your digital currency. One common method is to send you
an e-mail with a link that takes you to false “dummy” web pages that
appear to be identical in all ways to the genuine website (such as our
gcGold sign-in page) but are actually PHONY shadow web site
pages– NOT on the gcGold website at all. When you innocently type in
your password, a malicious program records your keystrokes and steals
your account number and password.

The Internet is still a new frontier and is vulnerable to exploitation
and scams. Electronic thieves have routinely attacked eBay, Amazon.com,
AOL and all the major banking web sites for years. Almost all Internet
server names have been used for this scam as well. PLEASE REMEMBER:
GCGOLD WILL NEVER SEND YOU AN EMAIL ASKING YOU TO CLICK ON A LINK TO
SIGN INTO YOUR ACCOUNT FOR ANY REASON! Be smart and delete any e-mails
like this that you may receive.

From all of us at gcGold, thank you again and welcome aboard!

Warm Regards,

gcGold Company Inc.
www.gcGold.com
support@gcGold.com

—————————————–

You will receive this e-mail one time only. Please do not respond to
this auto-generated e-mail. If you require personalized service, please
sign into your account and send a secure message through the
Message Center or e-mail us at support@gcGold.com

Account #1058? That implies that about a thousand people have fallen already! Waoh!!

The crux of the matter is that, after clicking on the confirmation link, a page displays, saying:

Please generate your private registration key using PE-Token Software.

Follow this simple instruction:
- Run PE-Token software on your computer. No installation needed.
- Enter your Account ID number.
- Press “Generate Registration Key” button.
- Copy-Paste it into box below.

The scamming is about to begin.

I downloaded the software and followed the instructions above. (I am not that naive with using the Internet). Promptly, my AVG Anti-virus software detected a Trojan Horse in the System32 folder of Windows. (here we come :-d). I promptly deleted the trojan horse, as well as the petoken.exe I had hirtheto downloaded. I then used the anti-virus software to scan my PC again. It still detected another Trojan, called Generic2.GDZ

I did some investigation and came up with this:

gcGold.com is acting like they are the new payment processor on the market. They offer various bonuses see 2 of there e-mail down this mail. and are advertising very big. However they don’t really have a payment system, if you sign up you will be asked to install there verification technologies PE-token.
This is where 2 Trojan horses are hidden , everything you send over the Internet will also be send to GCgold.com Also there site has no real payment system, if you would try to login this would not work because there is no real site How tempting there offer may seem don’t take it, it will only harm your computer and you may lose all your money on E-gold paypal and other payment processors.

As at this morning, this is what the gcCard homepage looked like. See the snapshot below:

Server Data
Server Type: Apache/1.3.37 (Unix)
IP Address: 208.186.220.55
IP Location: United States - Minnesota - Lakeville - Bluehost.com
Response Code: 200
Blacklist Status: Clear (history)
SSL Cert: www.gcgold.com expires in 267 days
Website Status: Active

Registry Data
ICANN Registrar: GO DADDY SOFTWARE, INC.
Created: 2006-09-02
Expires: 2007-09-02
Registrar Status: clientDeleteProhibit
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Name Server: NS1.BLUEHOST.COM

Registrant:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: GCGOLD.COM
Created on: 02-Sep-06
Expires on: 02-Sep-07
Last Updated on:

Administrative Contact:
Private, Registration Whois Privacy and Spam Prevention by DomainTools.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax — (480) 624-2599

Why will any genuine financial company use shared hosting and anonymous domain registration? Food for thought.

]]> http://www.goldeconomy.biz/gcgoldcom-is-a-scam/feed/ http://www.goldeconomy.biz/hyip-investment-are-hyip-investments-scams/ http://www.goldeconomy.biz/hyip-investment-are-hyip-investments-scams/#comments Sun, 17 Dec 2006 20:10:27 +0000 Oluniyi David Ajao http://www.goldeconomy.biz/hyip-investment-are-hyip-investments-scams/ It has always been a matter of debate, especially amongst e-currency newbies, as to whether HYIPs are scams or not.

According to Wikipedia:

A High Yield Investment Program, or HYIP, is a purported investment program normally offered via the Internet. HYIPs typically accept investments of $500 or less while promising high returns.

No HYIP has, as yet, survived for very long without turning out to be a scam. HYIPs are Ponzi schemes, in which new investors (usually unwittingly) provide the cash to pay a profit to existing investors, which they typically then withdraw leaving nothing to pay the new investor. This approach allows the scam to continue as long as new investors are found and/or old investors leave their money in the scheme, known as compounding (because even higher profits are promised).

Most HYIPs transact only in e-gold, most probably because of the virtual anonymity is offers. Added to this is that, e-gold transactions are irreversible. These factors make e-gold a haven for scammers - em, HYIPers.

If HYIPs were not scams, why would the people behind them prefer e-gold? This does not any way imply that e-gold is a scam, or that only scammers use it. No. Its anonymity attracts scammers.

The text below from ciao summarizes my thought about HYIP:

A particular class of services that is available to e-gold users but not other payment services (due to their conditions of use) are HYIPs. HYIP stands for High-Yield Investment Programme, which generally seems to be another name for a hoax. For example, this might mean that you invest $10 and then get a dollar each week for the next 15 weeks, gaining a 50 per cent profit on your investment in theory. In practice, most of these programmes simply rely on new members to keep the system solvent, and when the influx of new members dwindles, the pyramid collapses with the result that the few first members receive a good profit whereas the majority who came slightly later will lose most of their investment. Try it yourself if you like risk more than your money, but don’t say you haven’t been warned.

]]> http://www.goldeconomy.biz/hyip-investment-are-hyip-investments-scams/feed/ http://www.goldeconomy.biz/paypal-to-e-gold/ http://www.goldeconomy.biz/paypal-to-e-gold/#comments Sun, 17 Dec 2006 20:00:52 +0000 Oluniyi David Ajao http://www.goldeconomy.biz/paypal-to-e-gold/ One of the most popular searches on the leading search engines like Google, Yahoo Search and Windows Live Search when it comes to e-currency searches is “paypal to e-gold” or “paypal e-gold”. This betrays a deep drive amongst e-gold users to convert their paypal funds to e-gold, or that some scammers/hackers who have managed to take-over someone’s e-gold account, are eager to convert it to anonymous e-gold.

But then, is it really possible to convert paypal to e-gold? Read on…

Well, the truth is, paypal frowns at this type of transaction. The same thing applies to moneybookers. They do not want users to convert funds from their system to e-gold - at least, not directly.

Another reason is that, since Paypal can be funded with credit cards (or major debit cards), scammers take advantage of that to use stolen credit cards to buy e-gold. When the real owner of the credit card charges-back, the e-gold merchant suffers because the paypal funds will be reversed whereas, e-gold cannot be reversed. Thus, the anonymous scammer wins. It is thus very risky for any e-gold exchanger to accept paypal, and pay out e-gold.

]]> http://www.goldeconomy.biz/paypal-to-e-gold/feed/ http://www.goldeconomy.biz/ecobank-launches-naira-denominated-credit-card/ http://www.goldeconomy.biz/ecobank-launches-naira-denominated-credit-card/#comments Tue, 21 Nov 2006 14:19:17 +0000 Oluniyi David Ajao http://www.goldeconomy.biz/ecobank-launches-naira-denominated-credit-card/ Ecobank Nigeria Limited has launched a Mastercard-backed credit card. The Ecobank Naira Credit Card (ENCC), the card is expected to significantly alter the electronic payment system in the country and improve the lifestyle of the average Nigerian.
Daily Sun quotes Ecobank’s Executive Director of Retail Banking, Henry Nelson, as saying:

“we are beginning a revolution in card business in Nigeria in collaboration with other members of the Ecobank Translational Incorporated. It is a way to reward credit worthy and honest Nigerians to achieve their personal and professional aspirations whilst responding to the call by many Nigerian’s for a secure credit card capable of enabling business transaction in Naira.”

Unlike previous “credit cards” offered in Nigeria, it has no collateral, no guarantor, no security just come and fulfil the necessary requirements and you get a credit card. Users can get up to 20% of their annual income.

The card is useable on all Interswicth ATMs located around Nigeria, about 1000 ATMs all around the country that accepts the credit cards.

According to Olumide Bajomo, Head card business of Ecobank Nigeria:

“On repayment, we have worked out a flexible repayment, which involves 40 day interest free period, within which a customer repays the credits no interest will be charged on the facility. A minimum of 5 per cent per months has been worked out; we have anti-default mechanism built into the facility, to ensure that we get our money back.

“It is virtually difficult for anybody to swindle the bank or misuse the facility. The fact that a legible number of Nigerians are fraudulent will not disallow us from introducing an innovative product like this credit card. The cards come in variants of Classic N250, 000, Premium N1million, Gold N2.5million and Platinum N5million,” he added.

]]> http://www.goldeconomy.biz/ecobank-launches-naira-denominated-credit-card/feed/ http://www.goldeconomy.biz/cash-cards-freezes-v-cash-accounts-of-nigerians/ http://www.goldeconomy.biz/cash-cards-freezes-v-cash-accounts-of-nigerians/#comments Mon, 26 Jun 2006 21:53:36 +0000 Oluniyi David Ajao http://www.goldeconomy.biz/cash-cards-freezes-v-cash-accounts-of-nigerians/ Cash Cards LLC, operators of the not-so-popular V-Cash digital currency have freezed the V-Cash account of Nigerian account holders, citing the money-laundering activities in the West African nation as a reason.

A forum-user on a Nigerian forum quotes:

Effective Immediately, Cash Cards International can no longer do business with persons or businesses from Nigeria.

For a number of years the Financial Action Task Force (”FATF”) has placed Nigeria on the “Back List” of Non Cooperative countries in the fight against Money Laundering.

According to the US State Department, Nigeria is a worldwide hub for Money Laundering activity, and is notorious for Financial Fraud Schemes that involve the International Wire Transfer of funds.

For more information:

http://www.fatf-gafi.org/dataoecd/16/23/36174130.pdf

http://www.fintrac.gc.ca/publications/avs/2004-10-29_e.asp

http://www.fatf-gafi.org/dataoecd/43/53/34949558.pdf

http://www.fincen.gov/advis32.pdf

http://www.oecd.org/document/61/0,2340,fr_2649_37453_2487165_1_1_1_37453,00.html

As an international corporation we have been monitoring the progress of Nigeria to meet the requirements to be taken off the “Black List”.  Unfortunately, there just hasn’t been enough progress (see first reference above) and as such we must now suspend all transactions with individuals or businesses from Nigeria to include freezing all V-Cash accounts opened by Nigerians.  At such time that Nigeria meets the criteria to be removed from the “Black List”, we will again open up these accounts.

Cash Cards did not give prior notice to account holders.

According to a Nigerian daily newspaper however, Nigeria has been removed from the International Financial Task Force’s (FATF) list of Non-Cooperating Countries and Territories, thus pronouncing a clean bill of health for the nation’s financial credit profile.

The country’s de-listing by the FATF yesterday was in recognition of the significant progress the Obasanjo administration has made in sanitizing the country’s financial sector and implementing the National Strategy Against Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism.

With yesterday delisting by the FATF, Nigeria is now free of encumbrances that have the capacity to stifle the inflow of investment and economic growth.

Cash Cards International provides Exchange Services for Digital Currency industry, dealing exclusively in e-gold and V-Cash.

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