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About Webmoney

Webmoney is an electronic money and online payment system with similarity to Paypal, E-Gold, Pecunix, E-Bullion and other E-Currency services. It provides a fast and somewhat anonymous payment system however the registration process requires email verification and account holders are encouraged to verify themselves further through sending an SMS message from their cellphone making it more strict than E-Gold for opening and using an account. WM verification gives the following advantages: private key file retrieval if you have lost control over your WMID; complaint to the Arbitration service; credit activities; access to online services, Internet exchanges, information resources requiring personal client identification. Verified users can issue trust certificates to other users and take fees for the service. Any user can become a verified Register. Verified Registers can verify other WebMoney users.

Transactions are conducted through the WMTransfer software which comes in three distinct flavours :

• WM Keeper Classic - A standalone application, that is dowloaded and then installed onto your PC.
• WM Keeper Light — A secure browser based application that doesn’t require installation of client software onto a user’s PC.
• Telepat — A technology enabling the operation of an account via any mobile device or cell phone, that supports Java.

WM Transfer Ltd, the owner and administrator of WebMoney Transfer Online Payment System, was founded in 1998 and is a legal corporate entity of Belize, Central America. Originally targeted at Russian consumers and businesses, Webmoney is now in use worldwide and the company claims to have more than 3.7 million account holders. According to the stats on the website, Webmoney executed over 75,000 transactions worth over 10 Million dollars on this day alone. The main address for technical support is given in Moscow; the main proprietor and administrator is located in Belize. Transactions in WMR are underwritten by WMR LLC in Moscow and transactions in WME and WMZ are underwritten by Amstar Holdings Limited in Panama.

The System supports several types of e-currency, secured by various resources and tangibles. Each individual e-currency has a dedicated electronic wallet, called a Purse:

+ WMR — equivalent to RUR (R-Purse)
+ WMZ — equivalent to USD (Z-Purse)
+ WME — equivalent to EUR (E-Purse)
+ WMU — equivalent to UAH (U-Purse)
+ WMB — equivalent to Belorussian Roubles (B-Purse)
+ WMY - equivalent to Uzbek Sum (Y-Purse)
+ WM-C and WM-D — WMZ equivalent for transactions on Ñ- and D-purses

WebMoney transactions are inherently safe because they do not require credit card or bank account information to be stored in the system unlike Paypal which is well known for it’s problems with phishing schemes. Webmoney makes online businesses immune to certain scams because transactions are final and cannot be repudiated by the spender which is similar to e-gold or cash transactions but unlike credit card transactions and PayPal which can incur chargebacks.

WebMoney incorporates an instant messaging system as well as a way to send out bills and to extend credit. It is also possible to protect a payment with a password. The payment is withdrawn from the payer’s account and added to the payee’s account, but cannot be redeemed unless the password is known. The payer will typically provide the password once the promised goods have been delivered. Some operations require a higher level of user authentication known as a “WM Passport” which a user can obtain from authorized parties.

It is not possible to buy WM units online with a credit card or a Paypal account. A Webmoney purse can be funded by a bank wire, by receiving funds from other account holders, by issuing invoices, by a prepaid WM-Card or through a E-Currency exchanger.

My Opinions on Webmoney as an Online Business Owner

I’ve had my Webmoney account for a few months now because my loadable debit card provider, GoldEx, accepts Webmoney as a funding option, so I decided to give it a try as an option for accepting payment for services. I run a web-hosting service, a few internet directories and several sites that accept advertising such as this one (Code4Gold). I DO NOT accept Paypal under any circumstances due to the fact they have a nasty habit of freezing people’s accounts for 180 days for no reason at all and they will not offer an explaination why your account was frozen. I had $2300 in my Paypal account from a guitar I sold on E-Bay and the transaction was fine, both myself and the buyer were very happy, however when I logged into my Paypal account one day, my funds had been frozen. I was a Paypal account holder for 7 years with the debit card, over 700 verified transactions and not a single negative feedback on E-Bay. I eventually had to sue Paypal to get my money back and they graciously allowed me to keep my account which I refuse to use even though I know it costs me sales. Beside having a standard “Internet Merchant Account” through CardServices International for processing credit cards, I also prefer to accept as many usable payment options because the more payment options you present a consumer the more likely you are to make a sale. Considering Webmoney claims to have over 3 Million account holders, I figured it would be a good idea to try and tap into some of that market.

My Opinions on Webmoney’s Design and Implementation

As many of you readers know, I am a software developer by trade and have worked on high level projects so I’m quite critical of design and form versus function. If you don’t believe me, you should read my scathing Agloco Toolbar Review… In my opinion, Webmoney has one of the cleanest, simplest, well designed, professional, elegant and secure systems I’ve ever used. I absolutely love the fact that you can choose your authorization mode from X.509 Certificate, E-num authorization or simple Login and Password. The X.509 Certificate is my method of choice because it is possibly one of the most secure and simple methods of logging in to an account.

Making spends from Webmoney is a simple process and setting up the merchant’s interface to accept payments is similar to setting up a Paypal or E-Gold merchant transaction. The only exception is that Webmoney’s merchant interface is a developer’s dream come true in it’s configurability and in regards to the data that is returned to the merchant to verify a successful payment.

The more I work with the Webmoney interface and the merchant’s interface, the more I come to respect the incredible attention to detail the creators of this system have applied to constructing the perfect online payment system.

To open a Webmoney account and have alook for yourself, their site is available at the link below…
http://www.wmtransfer.com/

Opening an account is free of charge.

I would also sincerely appreciate any comments from other Webmoney account holders regarding your experience with them.