Epassporte scamming

[Evil Chris]

Be careful.
I know most webmasters are savvy to these kinds of scams though.

Just got this email that looks official enough but isn't. Much the same as those ebay and Paypal scams where they collect usernames and passwords to accounts.

## LIMITED EPASSPORTE ACCOUNT ##
Dear ePassporte user,
We recently reviewed your account, and suspect that your VISA card may have been accessed by an unauthorized third party . Protecting the security of your account and of the ePassporte network is our primary concern.

There, as a prevention measure, we have temporarely limited access to your ePassport account and VISA .

http://www.epassporte.com/vcenter/verprocess.cgi


For more information about how to protect your account, please visit ePassporte's FAQ, link located at the top of each page of ePassporte website .

We apologize for any inconvinience this may cause, and appreciate your assistance in helping us maintain the integrity of the ePassporte system .Thank you for your promp attention to this matter .
Sincerely,
The ePassporte Team

That URL actually goes to: http://213.139.10.6/lancaster/.ebcheck/index.html

It even attempts to LOAD A TROJAN before you do anything at all.
Don't be fooled.

The worst part here is that in all probability it's one of our own (a webmaster) who is behind this fucking shit. Because apart from Party Poker, the only people I have ever dealt with on Epass are webmasters.

[TheEnforcer]

Thought you were accusing them of something.. LOL

Good for webmasters to know about the flase e-mails claiming to be Epassporte though.

[RyanLanane]

Just sent this page to Chris Mallick ...

That way he gets on top of this before it becomes a problem!

[Lisa]

Hahahahahahaha...heheheheheheheh...

Ryan, you're funny.

I'm still waiting for Chris Mallick to call me, as he promised to do, over a month ago.

Perhaps he got offended when I sent him an email about 2 weeks ago, in reply to the one he sent me saying he'd call after the show in La, which said only 'Don't put yourself out.'

Something else weird with EPP lately. After I withdrew the money Nick sent for my camera (which I'm still very delighted with, incidentally), I had a balance of 33c. A few days later, I have a balance of -$1.03, so somehow, $1.30 disappeared from my account without any further transactions taking place. Not a huge amount of money I know, and I don't really care, other than the curiosity, WTF, factor.

[RyanLanane]

Originally Posted by Lisa

Hahahahahahaha...heheheheheheheh...

Ryan, you're funny.

I'm still waiting for Chris Mallick to call me, as he promised to do, over a month ago.

Perhaps he got offended when I sent him an email about 2 weeks ago, in reply to the one he sent me saying he'd call after the show in La, which said only 'Don't put yourself out.'

Something else weird with EPP lately. After I withdrew the money Nick sent for my camera (which I'm still very delighted with, incidentally), I had a balance of 33c. A few days later, I have a balance of -$1.03, so somehow, $1.30 disappeared from my account without any further transactions taking place. Not a huge amount of money I know, and I don't really care, other than the curiosity, WTF, factor.

Lisa, I was supposed to have a call with Chris after the show as well .. On Tuesday actually. Just figured he got tied up in other things. Part of what I was going to talk to him about was clearing up the exact perception of E-Pass you just described...

Their company has great potential - they just need to clear up some basic problems that have been on going for some time. For example, a $25 deposit i made into a poker site, Euro Bet. Euro Bet claims they were having problems integrating E-Pass and I jsut have to wait 14 days for it to go out of pending status. Small stuff like that has to be solved.

It can be done, and it could be done in 6 months... with an asshole at the helm riding every departmental manager's ass

[Dravyk]

Originally Posted by RyanLanane

Lisa, I was supposed to have a call with Chris after the show as well .. On Tuesday actually. Just figured he got tied up in other things. Part of what I was going to talk to him about was clearing up the exact perception of E-Pass you just described...

Their company has great potential - they just need to clear up some basic problems that have been on going for some time. For example, a $25 deposit i made into a poker site, Euro Bet. Euro Bet claims they were having problems integrating E-Pass and I jsut have to wait 14 days for it to go out of pending status. Small stuff like that has to be solved.

It can be done, and it could be done in 6 months... with an asshole at the helm riding every departmental manager's ass

Oh they badly need to fix the things wrong "under the hood". True.

But before there's no "car" left to fix, they need to get their image the hell cleaned up. Customer relations, public relations, marketing ... they're in the toilet. No one who isn't signed up with them already has a single compelling reason to join. And those who are signed up, some are just withdrawing and closing their accounts, or doing a wait-and-see thing.

And I'm among the latter. I'm waiting, and waiting, and what I'm seeing is nada. I was thinking of adding eP as a payment solution to something I'm working on for Q1 2006. I see no reason whatsoever now to do that; in fact, I see compelling reasons not to do that at the moment.

It's turned from a positive to a "doesn't matter either way" and is slowing going towards where adding them on a site could be construed as a negative.

[RyanLanane]

Originally Posted by Dravyk

Oh they badly need to fix the things wrong "under the hood". True.

But before there's no "car" left to fix, they need to get their image the hell cleaned up. Customer relations, public relations, marketing ... they're in the toilet. No one who isn't signed up with them already has a single compelling reason to join. And those who are signed up, some are just withdrawing and closing their accounts, or doing a wait-and-see thing.

And I'm among the latter. I'm waiting, and waiting, and what I'm seeing is nada. I was thinking of adding eP as a payment solution to something I'm working on for Q1 2006. I see no reason whatsoever now to do that; in fact, I see compelling reasons not to do that at the moment.

It's turned from a positive to a "doesn't matter either way" and is slowing going towards where adding them on a site could be construed as a negative.

Dravyk,
Couldn't agree with you more... There are some problems in alot of departments, I think they could be fixed. You do as well or else you wouldn't have had a "Wait and See" mentality

Most of the problems - and feel free to disagree with me.. are in basic operations and customer support. These are things that can be fixed, and fixed quickly with the right management changes. I honestly think with the right changes made E-Pass could have everything under control in 6 months easy - including a positive spin on Public Relations...

Did anyone attend the show? Did E-Pass have a presence there?

[Dravyk]

Yeah, Ryan, I'm sure Chris will jump on that with the usual alacrity. Which means maybe in July 2006 he'll get back to ya.

Lisa, all I've been seeing on other boards is the same thing as happened to you. The card runs out. The next card doesn't get there before hand to overlap. And when the new card does show up, it's debatable whether it was in process of going out automaticly or if the complaint was the only reason they got the new card at all.

Whatever their problems are, they had better get off their asses and fix it fast, cause ePassporte has an ever-growing negative reputation, and amazingly they're not doing a thing to reverse it or even slow its slide. And things like not getting back to people are in fact only reinforcing the image. Amazingly amazingly stupid.

[Keyser Soze]

Originally Posted by Lisa

Something else weird with EPP lately. After I withdrew the money Nick sent for my camera (which I'm still very delighted with, incidentally), I had a balance of 33c. A few days later, I have a balance of -$1.03, so somehow, $1.30 disappeared from my account without any further transactions taking place. Not a huge amount of money I know, and I don't really care, other than the curiosity, WTF, factor.

When you first withdrew the money your Aussie bank put a pending charge on your account, then when they put in the charge (usually the next day) the amount has changed a little bit due to the exchange rate changing thats why you see a negative balance.

It happens all the time to me until it says cleared, instead of pending next to a transaction not in US$ it can change a little bit.

[george]

thanks for the info!

[TheEnforcer]

It is likely a symptom of EPassporte growing faster than they expected. it did really take off and when you get very large growth like that there are bound to be some problems along the way. Now is a critcal time for them as if they can get a hold of things they will really be able to take off but if not they could easily backslide into an afterthought.

[Evil Chris]

I'd say I'm generally happy with the service EPP provides me. I'm a customer with simple needs at the moment however.

Service to non-US residents leaves a lot to be desired though.

[Dravyk]

Originally Posted by Evil Chris

I'd say I'm generally happy with the service EPP provides me. I'm a customer with simple needs at the moment however.

Service to non-US residents leaves a lot to be desired though.

My experience has so far been the same as Chris's. That's why, Ryan, I'm still waiting and seeing; nothing broken for me personally yet.

Keyser, didn't eP hire you last month? Are you still there?

[Keyser Soze]

Originally Posted by Dravyk

My experience has so far been the same as Chris's. That's why, Ryan, I'm still waiting and seeing; nothing broken for me personally yet.

Keyser, didn't eP hire you last month? Are you still there?

Yep still there

[Evil Chris]

Odd, but I got a reply from EPP customer service asking me what it was that I had just sent them.

Is Chris paying people minimum wage over there?

[Dravyk]

Originally Posted by Evil Chris

Odd, but I got a reply from EPP customer service asking me what it was that I had just sent them.

Is Chris paying people minimum wage over there?

If he is, they must be overpaid.

[Keyser Soze]

Originally Posted by Evil Chris

Odd, but I got a reply from EPP customer service asking me what it was that I had just sent them.

Is Chris paying people minimum wage over there?

Chris I forwarded your post about the scam to both Shaliza and Chris the day you posted it