02/11/2020 all users of the ePayments payment system received “letters of happiness”. Below you can find the text of this letter:

 «Dear ______,

Your account _______

We write to inform you that in accordance with paragraph 12.1 (j) of our standard terms and conditions, we have unfortunately taken the hard decision to suspend activity on customer accounts, effective from today. During the course of this suspension customers will be unable to transfer, deal, withdraw or deposit funds and will be unable to use their ePayments cards.

Following a review by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) of ePayments Systems Limited’s (‘ePayments’) anti-money laundering systems and controls, a number of weaknesses have been identified which require urgent remediation to ensure that our customers can enjoy a safe and secure platform.

Following discussions with the FCA, ePayments has agreed to suspend activity on customer accounts until remedial action has been undertaken to the satisfaction of the FCA.

We know this will be a very frustrating time for our customers. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and are working tirelessly with the FCA to ensure improvements are made and accounts can be reactivated as soon as possible.

During this improvement process, we want to assure customers that their funds are being safeguarded as normal.

Should you have any questions in connection with this letter please contact [email protected]».

In short, the essence of the letter is as follows:

– all users’ accounts are frozen;

– dubious transactions were detected in some ePayments’s clients, thereby causing suspicions of a violation of the law against money laundering;

– ePayments actively collaborates with authorities to resolve this issue;

– customers’ accounts will be frozen until the end of the audit and the determination of the future of the System.

Our source reported that ePayments had certain problems with the authorities a long time ago, which made it possible to effectively prepare for the situation and withdraw our customers’ money from this payment system for safety. Just for such cases, we advise each client to keep at least 3 spare bank accounts/accounts in payment systems. Then, in case of problems with the account, business operational activity does not stop, and the company can continue to operate in a usual rhythm.

WHAT TO DO? Will I get my money from the account?

This question is now plaguing many users of the ePayments system. At the moment from our sources inside the company’s clear a few things:

1) The company actively cooperates with the control authorities and is ready to provide all the information;

2) So far, there has been no talk of losing the license (although they hinted that there are risks and this issue will be discussed);

3) There will be many more cases of violation and suspicious transactions during the audit (the period until 2018 will be especially difficult – that time the company was accepting literally with everybody).

Since in such payment systems Deposit Guarantee Fund is not present, accordingly, the risks of users are quite high. Nevertheless, VigoLex has already helped users with blocked bank accounts (who remember the blocking of the Malta Satabank and Montenegrin IBM), and we can also help with ePayments.

P.S. By the way, information for fans of cryptocurrencies. There is a big suspicion that such a sharp increase in BTC and ETH is connected precisely with the problems of ePayments, and therefore many users withdrew funds through the “pocket” DSX cryptocurrency exchange and actively were buying cryptocurrency.

VigoLex will continue to keep you up to date with information, we will inform you on our website.