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E-Gold Warning
If you’ve followed this blog for the last year and a half, you’d know we’ve always been supportive of the E-Gold payment system, but after recent dealings with E-Gold and GS&R (their parent company), our opinion of this money transmitter has become jaded. Since the US Department of Justice’s indictment of E-Gold on money laundering charges, it’s become a reality that these charges are not unfounded and that the creators of E-Gold, Dr. Douglas Jackson and Barry Downey are shady individuals and quite possible personally involved in the alleged fraud regarding E-Gold’s operations.
The reason I’m writing this article is a recent block put on our advertising account for no apparent reason. The E-Gold account in question has never accepted any funds except for payments for advertising. Given that information it would seem assinine that E-gold has placed a block on an account with no suspicious activities.
To begin with, I placed a telephone call to E-Gold’s support regarding the blocked account and I had the displeasure of dealing with a very, very nasty person who refused to listen and continued to talk over me stating that I would have to email E-gold support regarding the issue and that they would send me details on recovering my account. I was told I would have to furnish an electric bill or some other proof that I am the account holder. I responded to this crude person stating that E-Gold/Omnipay already had my correct personal information on file. Omnipay required a user to confirm their “snail mail” address prior to making out-exchanges. Additionally, my bank account was on file with Omnipay due to the fact I’d out-exchanged to bank wire a few times before they were shut down by the DOJ. I asked this rude support person, “What difference does an electric bill matter if you already have my phone number, snail mail address and bank account?” but the response I got was this shrew hung up on me. So I sent the support email to E-Gold on Thursday and as of today, Tuesday, I have yet to hear back from them.
E-Gold is located in Melbourne, Florida and despite the continual misinformation that they are Nevis based, that in itself is a bold faced lie. While I was speaking to E-Gold support, I stated that they could easily look up my name in the Volusia County property appraisers office and see that I’m the owner of the home listed as the snail mail contact in my E-Gold account. Anybody living or working in Melbourne, Florida would be quite aware that Volusia county is the next county up the coast from Melbourne and I would think that a person’s homeownership being listed in a government database might be sufficient proof while a copy of an electric bill could easily be forged by somebody with access to a scanner, Photoshop and a printer. All my bills are paid by automatic withdrawl, I have no paper bills. Seems the folks at E-gold are definitely a step behind and after my dealings with them I have to agree that they are operating a questionable operation and are worthy of the accusations levied against them.
While there was only $100 left in my E-Gold account and I’m also well aware of the simplicity of sending and receiving money from a blocked account (go read Talkgold forums, there are plenty of scammers doing it all the time over there), I refuse to use improper channels to recover my funds.
I urge anybody reading this article to liquidate your E-Gold accounts as soon as possible because there has baan a rash of people contacting me through Code4Gold forums regarding E-Gold blocking their accounts and allegedly confiscating their funds. Which brings up another good point that a friend mentioned to me. What exactly becomes of funds in blocked accounts that are never recovered? It would seem this is a quick and easy way for E-Gold to pinch money the money for themselves. I wonder how much money E-Gold has pocketed over the last few year from scammers’ accounts who could not or would not provide the necessary information to unblock their accounts?
As for Dr. Douglas Jackson, all the blogging and whining he’s doing right now isn’t going to change the fact that E-Gold will eventually be shut down and it’s principals repremanded. The E-gold system is/was a very unique and very innovative system which is why so many free minded people embraced and heralded it. Granted, E-Gold as a wonderful concept, however, they blew it. Greed and ignorance allowed E-Gold to become a favorite tool for scammers and E-Gold collected the profits from those people while turning a blind eye to the law.
The internet community needs to be warned of the shady dealings at E-Gold against account holders who have actually been doing legitimate business through this money transmitter and payment processor.
by C4G
Yes, I was made aware of a certain person on TalkGold bloating about me account being blocked. Nontheless, the fact I have all my personal information on file with E-Gold/Omnipay did not warrant the treatment I received from their obnoxious employee.
by Paul
To get E-gold from blocked account you need just to have an old account and to turn on account option “Accept payments from the blocked account”. Not a big trick really. So you don’t have to bash e-gold just because it blocked your account, just think about possible consequences of your actions.
by C4G
I already *clearly* stated I was aware of how to recover funds from a blocked account but doing so is in violation of E-Gold’s TOS. I have done nothing wrong and I intend to do nothing wrong.
Pray tell me what the consequences of my actions might be? I will never, ever, ever use E-Gold again as a payment processor for any of my services. I have a merchants account, V-Money, Webmoney and Paypal, please tell me what advantage E-Gold offers. E-gold is only used for playing ponzi scams, there is no legit reason otherwise to use it.
FYI, 90% of the legit merchants who once accepted E-Gold (Monster Templates for one) have ceased using E-Gold as an option. I guess if you want ot play ponzi’s like theones listed on your blog, E-Gold would be the choice for you. In my case I have washed my hands clean of surfs and hyips and now E-Gold.
by Darron
To Los and Paul:
E-Gold has blocked my account that was used only for trading on Marketiva Forex. I am not US Citizen and do not have proper identity info to send them for unblocking the account. I have lost $18,000 thanks to E-Gold.
I have give nobody my E-Gold number out of Marketiva so how can some malice person block me? I do not think Marketiva would do this to a trader. I made complaint on talkgold forum and many other traders have reply to this same problems with E-Gold.
Listen to C4G. E-Gold is grabbing any monies they can for legal defense or for them to run away with.
by Jorge Pineiro
I haven’t got any trouble with E-Gold as of yet, BUT I’m well aware of the situation, that’s why I always keep very low sum in Egold, just hope Liberty Reserve can take Egold’s place…
Thanks for the article Dave
by Basketball! at The Dolphin’s Wink
[…] Code4Gold has an interesting article up about E-Gold and how he’s feeling about them. Worth reading. Personally, I have not used E-gold in some time now. While I have had hope they’d get through the mess they are in, I’ve also pretty much kept my distance. It’s helped that I haven’t been involved in much and haven’t really had a need to use the service. […]
by Autosurf Industry News » Blog Archive » Basketball!
[…] Code4Gold has an interesting article up about E-Gold and how he’s feeling about them. Worth reading. Personally, I have not used E-gold in some time now. While I have had hope they’d get through the mess they are in, I’ve also pretty much kept my distance. It’s helped that I haven’t been involved in much and haven’t really had a need to use the service. […]
by Mark Herpel
“E-Gold/Omnipay already had my correct personal information. Omnipay required a user to confirm their “snail mail” address to make out-exchanges.”
>>>e-gold Ltd. is NOT OmniPay, these are two separate companies and employees. If OmniPay has your info, they don’t share with anyone including e-gold client details. I did the same snail mail verification with OmniPay but e-gold has no knowledge of it.
“Additionally, my bank account was on file with Omnipay due to the fact I’d out-exchanged to bank wire two times before they were shut down by the DOJ.”
>>>Again, e-gold does not have this information. E-gold Ltd, has no bank account and does not have your info.
“I asked this rude support person, “What difference does an electric bill matter if you already have my phone number, snail mail address and bank account?”
>>>e-gold ONLY has the info you put into your online account information page, no more.
“I stated that she could easily look up my name in the Volusia County property appraisers office and see that I’m the owner of the home listed as the snail mail contact in my E-Gold account. ”
>>>There are 4 million + e-gold accounts, do you think they should hire personnel to search State records uncovering property titles on them all? Can’t you just make a copy of your light bill? Even with an automated payment online or EFT from your account, there is still a record isn’t there? Something in your name? Due diligence on an account can be a strange thing, don’t miss the point….this due diligence may be to protect their own butt and not ‘really’ find who is operating the account. If in the future they are asked, “did you inquire who owns the account? did you get proof? ” They can say, YES, here is the light bill or such of a similar document. Bank statement will also work. That limits the companies exposure in cases of fraud. They checked…..they got what was required to cover their butt. I’m pretty sure it still works like that and its a good system.
“my complete database of over 1700 scam hyip and autosurf program that have used E-Gold since 2005 and scammed millions of dollars from unsuspecting victims while e-Gold turned a blind eye.”
>>>I’ll work with you to publish a copy of your lists if you like, blogging and on the newspapers. That is an interesting list. email me panama@cryptoheaven.com
“E-Gold to pinch money from ponzi autosurf and hyip victims and pocket the money for themselves.”
>>>I doubt that is their reasoning, but GOOD, maybe people won’t send them more money, good for e-gold!
“Ignorance of the law is no defense”
>>>Yep, very true.
The big problem here, is that like you, many of e-gold’s customers who have been with them for years and years are now jumping ship for one reason or another and to re-build that base, now in 2007-08, with all the competition would be impossible. Changes are inevitable here with their program, but I hope its a change for the better and continued business. I see it won’t be your business, but I understand why. I feel your pain.
Mark
by C4G
Thanks for the response Mark, well received as usual. You know I have always been a big fan of E-Gold and I’ve always thought their system was innovative. I’d also given them credit for phone surpport in the past but this particular issue has finally caused my opinion to be tarnished.
Well, first off, I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t think it would be wise to send due diligence documents to a company that is under indictment for money laundering charges, especially a copy of a passport or driver’s license.
The thing that really pisses me off is that I was not sent an email warning or asked to resolve some situation arising from a malicious party that might have filed a false report. Furthermore, the account that was blocked was used exclusively for advertising purchases and to pay my forum members for posting. There is no way in the world E-Gold can justify their actions because how do they know my advertising policies? You can ask anybody who has ever advertised on C4G (yes, we have a lot of people advertise their ref banners), I’m not like other forums that pull the ad the minute it expires, usually I’ll let ads run for a lot longer than the paid duration (it works to gain repeat advertisers). So if somebody filed a complaint that I hadn’t fufilled an advertising agreement, I think I’m at least due justification of the complaint made against me. Furthermore, I was never sent an email stating the account was blocked. It came to my attention from one of my forum mods. As a businessman, that’s pathetic responsibility on E-Gold’s part.
As I’ve stated, I can’t say anything but good stuff about Marco with GoldEx and V-Money. The Russian company who runs Webmoney are also awesome. I actually got phone support in English through their New York office (lol, they even taught me how to send an SMS text message outside the US). Of course, I relocated some of my E-Gold into Pecunix and Liberty Reserve as well.
In my opinion E-Gold is dead as a doornail. When MonsterTemplates and a bunch of other legit merchants pulled out this summer, it was all over for any legitimacy in E-Gold. The Iran issue (when they blocked all Iranian accounts) was also a turning point. Beside myself, I’ve seen a rash of people who’s accounts were blocked this week.
Take my warning and get your E-Gold out while you can. GoldEx is still accepting debit card fundngs in E-Gold. If you want to exchange I still recommend superchange.ru
by Spitfire David
So far, my E-Gold account was not blocked yet. I just pulled any E-Gold, Ebullion and StormPay information off my advertising page on my blog site.
by Jaxsomite
I got all my money out of egold and they blocked my account with $4 left in it.
by Cattysha
E-Gold is a scammers best friend. No repudiation policy? duuuuuumb.
by Investrating
I don’t think Paypal has been brought up on charges of money laundering but I see why E-Gold is going to lose. Paypal is very secure and performs lots of checks on business and personal accounts. E-Gold is lousy. They made a big mistake by making users in-exchange and out-exchange through third parties. That sets a ripe goal for big scammers. They were also stupid for being located in the US and lying about being a Nevis company.
by C4G
Paypal is overly obsessive with TOS violations so I don’t think that Paypal has much to worry about like E-Gold does. Something must be going on because I’m seeing a lot of people posting about their accounts being blocked recently. Funny, I don’t see E-Gold working to stop hyip and surf scams from registering bogus accounts but they’re blocking general users. Well, I don’t think E-Gold has any future and will never recover from the events of 2007. Just my opinion.
by endlessmoney
Seeing many of the Egold accounts blocked,I want to know what causes the blocking and can one really be safe from this blockage by keeping to all the terms to the best of the person’s ability?
by Mark Herpel
I laughed so hard I fell out of my chair from your statement:
“Well, first off, I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t think it would be wise to send due diligence documents to a company that is under indictment for money laundering charges, especially a copy of a passport or driver’s license.”
You are correct and that is good advice to anyone reading. I agree with, until their legal problems are resolved there are too many good alternatives, plus exchange fees will be lower elsewhere. I think the main reason to stay in e-gold was that everyone still used them. As you pointed out, that claim may not be valid anymore. I also posted on this…when a company’s policies are killing off their legit merchants and customers, but supporting ponzi scams….its time to change the policy. I think a big fricking text warning about using e-gold for scam investments — on the index page is at least a good start. If they lose these legit merchants and customers, they will never get them back.
Webmoney is awesome, and also Moneybookers is widely used now and an account can be set up, just like WM, without a ton of verification for up to about $1300 in MB per month in transactions.
This is a very good post and discussion. Thanks.
Mark
by C4G
I like Moneybookers as well. I’m currently rewriting my advertising script to support only Webmoney, V-Money, Moneybookers and merchant account credit card services (I use LinkPointCentral for credit card processing, they’re not the cheapest but they have the best interface).
I was a little more than ticked off that mt advertising account for Code4Gold Forums was the one blocked (?) But what pissed me off more was that E-gold didn’t even contact me so the page st there for days showing a blocked account.
On top of it I’m 100% certain it was some psychotic who has a vendetta against me who reported the account but there were no possible unfufilled transactions and when I asked the most basic questions of E-Gold support person on the phone she was very, very rude to me and told me to email support and hung up on me. (That’s definitely not a good sign for a business who is handling people’s money).
btw, after four emails to E-gold support I still haven’t received on single reply as to the requirements regarding verifying my account (even though I won’t do it).
Also, I noticed Doug Jackson is avoiding conspiracy on his blog and not allowing trackbacks or comments that challenge him. Perhaps he doesn’t quite understand the world of blogging and that it’s proof that you are hiding stuff if you don’t respond to blogposts. Christ, even Robert from C-Gold responded on all the forums and blogs. I’ll give Robert that credit over Jackson.
by Bold Due Diligence Moves At e-gold Bolster A Positive Long Term Outlook by HotSURFs.com Blog
[…] “I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t think it would be wise to send due diligence documents to a company that is under indictment for money laundering charges, especially a copy of a passport or driver’s license….Of course, I relocated some of my E-Gold into Pecunix and Liberty Reserve as well.” *code4gold.com […]
by Bold Due Diligence Moves At e-gold Bolsters A Positive Long Term Outlook pt2 » digital money news
[…] “I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t think it would be wise to send due diligence documents to a company that is under indictment for money laundering charges, especially a copy of a passport or driver’s license….Of course, I relocated some of my E-Gold into Pecunix and Liberty Reserve as well.” *code4gold.com […]
by adx
I have an E-Gold account with 61+ kg of silver… Yes, I was so naive that I exchanged it some months ago - I wanted to redeem physical metal, and this way I could get the necessary amount. So I became an “owner” of one of most silver-charged accounts on E-Gold, according to stats (I think there are only about 10 other with such or higher value).
And what follows? They stole my 25500+ USD, this fake currency is no longer supported/exchanged by anyone, pretty much because it has no backing. The “physical metal” is a lie - why would anyone relinquish his profits of having precious bullions? THEY have the bullions, THEY have the profits. It’s as simple as that. NOONE RELINQUISHES HIS PRECIOUS METALS UNLESS HE HAS NO CHOICE (i.e. is in a very bad life circumstances). These metals keep increasing value (they’re limited, and world population is increasing) - therefore ALL COMPANIES CLAIMING “YOU HAVE GOLD” ARE FRAUDULENT. Period.
How naive I was that I realized it only now… Ok, short story: they want “allocated storage” for their metal, and they decide what is allocated storage and what is not (normal deposit box is not enough). Of course I mailed various companies, including Brinks and Transguard, noone replied (only one Australian-government owned company, where they told me they don’t accept external metals).
So how do you think these poor exchangers can get more and more dollars for increasing gold value? They’ll just add more and more OutExchange commission - in fact, you’ll gain nothing from e-gold, this is not an “investition” in gold (ROTFL), you’ll only lose. The only nice thing about e-gold is anonymity, but Fethard offers this too and doesn’t steal.
by Janice Kroll
I had the unfortunate experience of dealing with E-Gold customer service (if you want to call it that) and must say they treat everybody as if they are a criminal. I would never touch E-Gold with a ten foot pole. I hope they get convicted on the money laundering charges because they knew what was going on and they turned a blind eye to it.
by C4G
If you want real proof that E-gold and Doug Jackson are nothing but a bunch of thugs check out the E-Gold blog. My trackback to his post from this post was deleted and the guy didn’t even bother to respond to my questions. Hell, even that putz from C-Gold (E-Gold clone) in Malaysia put up some reasonable points about his business here on this blog.
Jackson should realize that if you run blog and delete comments and trackbacks, it means you’re hiding something. I’ve never deleted a single comment that was critical of my views on this blog. Mark H. never deletes legitimate comments on his blog, Jude never deletes on NoBS blog. Seems Jackson has something to hide.
by C4G
Forgot to mention, it’s been almost two weeks now and haven’t received a single reply to over 7 emails sent as the support person on the phone told me to do.
by Reez
Probably you can used the Abuse department.
I believed that e-gold now are stay away from hyip and autosurf. I posted about it here
*edited spam*
by C4G
Well reez,
I don’t remember you being part of the blogging community although you didn’t need to until now that all you’re ponzi schemes have dried up and you’re not making the money you used to from advertising ponzi schemes and scamming idiots to join in your downline. It’s funny how many of you “big shots” from the hyip and surf community are scraping like little trolls to get any hits you can so you can keep making money off promoting ponzi and pyramid schemes.
btw, deleted your link. You are aware it’s not cool to post links in blog comments, it’s actually considered spam the way you’re doong it, but once a scumbag, always a scumbag.
Don’t you get it yet? ALL 100% of surfs are ponzi’s. They’re all scams. Oh, no, you’re like that Aussie moron TDinoz and you’ll keep promoting scams to the bitter end.
by Reez
Hi,
Well, it is okay for me if you said so no hard feeling but i am not worried about the referral or advertising renevue after all. most of the program i joined (1/3 of it) is by my owned and not because they came and list it on my site. but i do remember that you once also promoting this autosurf and hyips program only know the monitor was missing.
by Fandy
To make it simple and clear the basic idea behind e-gold are great, money backed up by real metal holdings within real banks, that is one point why so many have fallen victim to it.
What is the criminal action behind it are the reason that in its high days e-gold let open up everyone and anybody an account no matter what name you put there.
The real crime are with the facts that when we informed e-gold about a scammer all they did blocked the account so no money could go in but the scammer could take out all without any interference whatsoever.
For months now I am study the possibility to place charges against e-gold according to their rules in the past and sue them for the liability they should be bound by, the way they did business with all the e-gold account holders was like that. Put your money in and be prepared to loose it all.
any comments?
by Buzz
I was a firm supporter of e-Gold because of her FAST and CHEAP ecurrency service. She was a winner.
I was sad for a while as e-Gold had been transformed from a strong viable ecurrecncy standard to the direct opposite. E-Gold is now no longer reliable or trustworthy.
BUT NO LONGER …………..
Let’s MOVE ON from e-Gold to other available viable alternatives like LR, WM and STP.
Goodbyre e-Gold. It had been nice knowing you but too bad you have gone over to the other DARK SIDE.
BYE ………….
by Jurgen
I thought e-gold founder was a supporter of personal freedom but he is obviously just a tool of the American government. Why were they so stupid to run the business insid the US where company like Paypal dominate the online funds transfer busines. I’m glad I’m not a US citizen because they are going downhill whe they stop allowing private business to take place.
by dunduk
That’s nothing wrong with Douglas, besides the fact that for some strange reason he decided to run his business in shitty country called US. That’s US government which is trying to bring down all anonymous money transfer business and remove gold as currency from US markets again.
Goodbye US, bringing down some small company like e-gold doesn’t change the fact that you and your crappy dollar are worth close to nothing.
by david louis
I have my account open for 1 month I already spend 300$ by purchasing stuff from international merchant .So today I found you when I log on this
Unable to login to account.
The account (5236354) or passphrase information specified is incorrect.
Then I send a message to the support this is what I have as response.
The block will not be removed. Your account was blocked under our Right of Association clause in the account user agreement. Quoting from the e-gold Account User Agreement:
http://www.e-gold.com/unsecure/terms.htm
— begin quote
4.6. Right of Association
Issuer reserves the right to refuse service to particular individuals or entities, at its sole discretion, with or without cause.
— end quote
Thank You,
Due Diligence Unit
G&SR/OmniPay
175 E Nasa Blvd, Suite 300
Melbourne, FL 32901
by C4G
@david louis - Unfortunately, it means e-gold has confiscated your money and you will not likely recover it unless you are a US Citizen and file small claims lawsuit against e-gold but then again, the honest truth is that you are not likely to find much sympathy due to the fact that e-gold is widely associated with criminal activity.
Too bad you didn’t find this blog post before you opened your e-gold account a month ago because the vast majority of former e-gold users have left the processor behind a year ago when they were indicted for money laundering.
There’s not many honest and legitimate people who want to be associated with a payment processor under indictment because of the risks involved of the government confiscating their holdings.
E-Gold is dead, please people, if you’re reading this. Stay away from e-gold and stay away from the pyramid and ponzi schemes (hyip and autosurfs) associated with e-gold.