GoldEconomy.biz

Graphcard, a service that enables Internet users to spend cash online, has announced that it has now fully integrated e-gold into its system.

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.

As recent as the 3rd quarter of 2006, users of Graphcard could transfer funds from their Graphcard to Paypal - but not anymore. Even though the facility was very handy, for whatever reason, Graphcard has removed the ability of its users to transfer funds to Paypal.

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.

About 11 months ago, I read a newsletter from Capitalex.com about Goldxcash being a scam. I visited the goldxcash website and could confirm that they indeed stole Capitalex’s web design.

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!

For whatever reason, e-gold has freezed the accounts of its Iranian users. According to a group of e-gold users supposedly from Iran, e-gold freezed their accounts on November 24th 2006. They have signed a petition addressed to US Treasury Dept. and (G&SR), Inc.

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 Wild Wild Web (WWW)is never short of scams. This morning, when a friend reffered me to a website www.gcgold.com offering $20 USD e-gold for new account registration, I was hesitant, but chose to give it a try, out of being inquisitive.

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.

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.