alert The fund can't be withdrawal from Epik.com via Masterbucks wallet

[enamebroker]

It happened on 23rd Aug 2022 and this matter lasted almost one month without any process. Masterbucks.com declined my fund withdrawal and disabled the button of fund withdrawal. And I contacted Epik.com and got no further action even if Rob Monster got involved in it for two weeks. All the time I was told in email by management review.

What is wrong with Epik.com? Do you think it is normal to disable fund withdrawal? How can I get back my fund from Epik.com? Thanks for your suggestion.

 

[yardgs]

You would be a perfect fit for Epik's compliance team right now.

You best believe that my demand letter (complete with documentation) is even more thorough than this

I will call off my personal attorney and the consumer case at Washington’s Attorney General’s office once my Seller has received the funds. Hoping that happens soon.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

I was expecting to withdraw money through crypto, but the need to withdraw via wire transfers came as a surprise to me, so I'm not quite ready for a quick withdrawal. I note that I withdrew similar amounts from Sedo, and either they did not charge me a cent at all, or they charged ten to twenty dollars. Apparently, Sedo competes with Escrow.com and has developed cheap money transfers. And here it is almost one and a half thousand dollars, which is a lot. Although I contacted the Ukrainian bank, we also charge 0.75%, as they told me in the support chat. So I hope the 2.5% is a mistake.

 

[yardgs]

I was expecting to withdraw money through crypto, but the need to withdraw via wire transfers came as a surprise to me, so I'm not quite ready for a quick withdrawal. I note that I withdrew similar amounts from Sedo, and either they did not charge me a cent at all, or they charged ten to twenty dollars. Apparently, Sedo competes with Escrow.com and has developed cheap money transfers. And here it is almost one and a half thousand dollars, which is a lot. Although I contacted the Ukrainian bank, we also charge 0.75%, as they told me in the support chat. So I hope the 2.5% is a mistake.

My Seller based in Europe requested for wire transfer, but the transaction was processed as Wise. When he asked the customer service, he was told that for Europe they use Wise even for wire transfers because it’s cheaper. And if Epik will indeed use Wise on those, the % should be much lower.

I ran your 55k into this fee calculator for Wise in the attached file. You should definitely challenge them on it.

https://wise.com/ua/pricing/receive

 

[tonyk2000]

In the meantime, the rating @ trustpilot is down to 3.6 ... Even though some recent positive reviews were questioned (are they shills?), we should play fair imho. If you posted 1 star before but were paid - then do not hesitate to post another review reflecting this new "experience"....

The current fav. registrar NP poll is interesting in context of this thread. Epik got 16 votes (6.3%) so far. So they still have loyal customers. A few non-epik votes are from ex-staff members of Epik it seems. What happened? Did the new CEO fire them? More generally, whats up with all the staff and employees? A few pages ago there was a screenshot indicating that their accounting controller probably leaved the company on Friday for example... Epik copypasted Paypal ToS, so they do not have a lawyer. Why not to hire one?

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

My Seller based in Europe requested for wire transfer, but the transaction was processed as Wise. When he asked the customer service, he was told that for Europe they use Wise even for wire transfers because it’s cheaper. And if Epik will indeed use Wise on those, the % should be much lower.

I ran your 55k into this fee calculator for Wise in the attached file. You should definitely challenge them on it.

https://wise.com/ua/pricing/receive

I read reviews about Wise, and people write that they have money blocked there, so I don’t trust Wise.

 

[carob]

KYC are now done via a 3rd party located in a beautiful country of Estonia. For those unfamiliar with this name, it is a small European country, ex-USSR, with extremely adavnced e-government and e-services. So, it is up to each member to decide whether they want the PII data to be processed and stored in this location. If not - then, to the best of my understanding, withdrawals would not be available. Folks with incomatible IDs are either located in unsuported countries, or should probably apply for international travel passport and submit it as an alternative (just imho).

Estonia is an EU country and so subject to GDPR. And Epik.com in handling the data of EU citizens and residents is subject to GDPR for that data. Financial penalties for GDPR violations are substantial.

Under GDPR you can only collect data which you require. And you can only retain it for as long as the need exists. And you must have a documented plan in place to protect and restore data.

So people being asked for extensive data are entitled to refuse and point out that it is not required - I have seen this work in other contexts. Not least of all as everyone trying to get existing funds out of Epik were never presented with ToS - they have not agreed to hand over anything except money and/or payment channel details.

 

[bmugford]

Estonia is an EU country and so subject to GDPR. And Epik.com in handling the data of EU citizens and residents is subject to GDPR for that data. Financial penalties for GDPR violations are substantial.

Under GDPR you can only collect data which you require. And you can only retain it for as long as the need exists. And you must have a documented plan in place to protect and restore data.

So people being asked for extensive data are entitled to refuse and point out that it is not required - I have seen this work in other contexts. Not least of all as everyone trying to get existing funds out of Epik were never presented with ToS - they have not agreed to hand over anything except money and/or payment channel details.

Open questions:

1. What about KYC docs previously submitted to Epik. If those are no more good - which appears to be the case - then Epik should probably destory the files.

I asked something similar earlier in this thread.

What happens to the identity documents after Epik receives them?

Are they used to verify the identity then deleted or are they retained?

If they are retained, how are they stored?

It is normal industry standard practice that identity documents are stored in some type of cold storage, that is not connected to the internet.

People need to know what happens to the records after Epik collects them.

It is important that Epik answers these questions, especially after the massive data breach last year.

Brad

 

[Digital Nomad]

Estonia is an EU country and so subject to GDPR. And Epik.com in handling the data of EU citizens and residents is subject to GDPR for that data. Financial penalties for GDPR violations are substantial.

Under GDPR you can only collect data which you require. And you can only retain it for as long as the need exists. And you must have a documented plan in place to protect and restore data.

So people being asked for extensive data are entitled to refuse and point out that it is not required - I have seen this work in other contexts. Not least of all as everyone trying to get existing funds out of Epik were never presented with ToS - they have not agreed to hand over anything except money and/or payment channel details.

The whole issue is that after the hack it came to light that Epik did not store PII securely. What did they do to fix that? They never gave an update afterwards. I would hesitate to give them my passport etc.

 

[tonyk2000]

personal data is required for KYC regulations for "escrow"

In https://www.namepros.com/posts/7151132/ , Rob Monster discussed what escrow is. He was of opinion that

We use the term in the generic sense -- trusted 3rd party. In our case, we buy domains and we sell domains, and sometimes we do so with no profit. We are regulated by ICANN as an accredited registrar and govern ourselves accordingly.

In this context, and since epik/masterbucks are not licensed as escrow provider or financial service provider, it is unclear what applicable law may require KYC.

 

[Digital Nomad]

In https://www.namepros.com/posts/7151132/ , Rob Monster discussed what escrow is. He was of opinion that

We use the term in the generic sense -- trusted 3rd party. In our case, we buy domains and we sell domains, and sometimes we do so with no profit. We are regulated by ICANN as an accredited registrar and govern ourselves accordingly.

In this context, and since epik/masterbucks are not licensed as escrow provider or financial service provider, it is unclear what applicable law may require KYC.

I agree and thought about this after I wrote it, but yet that is a conventional reality. Epik can say whatever they want, but I'm pretty sure when money transactions are involved and they want to be the next PayPal, there must be a KYC regulation in effect for MasterBucks.

 

[bmugford]

The whole issue is that after the hack it came to light that Epik did not store PII securely. What did they do to fix that? They never gave an update afterwards. I would hesitate to give them my passport etc.

I agree. Most of the information from the data breach came from third parties, not Epik.

It was reported that Epik was storing some sensitive information in plain text, among other major security issues.

I am not really aware of what Epik did security wise to improve since that point.

When I bought that domain that Epik later took from my account without authorization, it was only because I could use Paypal. I would not personally trust them with any of my sensitive information or documents.

Brad

 

[bmugford]

In https://www.namepros.com/posts/7151132/ , Rob Monster discussed what escrow is. He was of opinion that

We use the term in the generic sense -- trusted 3rd party. In our case, we buy domains and we sell domains, and sometimes we do so with no profit. We are regulated by ICANN as an accredited registrar and govern ourselves accordingly.

In this context, and since epik/masterbucks are not licensed as escrow provider or financial service provider, it is unclear what applicable law may require KYC.

Yeah, that is not how it works. The "escrow" business is highly regulated in most states, for a number of reasons.

You can call it what you want, but at the end of the day you are subject to state or federal licensing requirements and regulations.

There is a reason that Epik doesn't offer escrow services to their home state of Washington.

Brad

 

[bmugford]

These are some extremely high transfer fees.

Who pays a fee for ACH?

2.5% for wire + a set fee. That is ridiculous.

Are there withdrawal fees?

Yes. Please see the following fee schedule listed below. You can also find this information located in our Terms of Service.

• ACH – 0.75%
• Wire Transfer - $45usd + 2.5%
• Cryptocurrency - 2.5%
• Wise - 2.5%
• PayPal - 3.9%

If these fees did not exist before, I would demand my money is transferred without them now.

Unless Epik can produce a previous TOS that you expressly agreed to, they arbitrarily changed the terms.

Brad

 

[Sammyblog]

These are some extremely high transfer fees.

Who pays a fee for ACH?

2.5% for wire + a set fee. That is ridiculous.

Are there withdrawal fees?

Yes. Please see the following fee schedule listed below. You can also find this information located in our Terms of Service.

• ACH – 0.75%
• Wire Transfer - $45usd + 2.5%
• Cryptocurrency - 2.5%
• Wise - 2.5%
• PayPal - 3.9%

If these fees did not exist before, I would demand my money is transferred without them now.

Unless Epik can produce a previous TOS that you expressly agreed to, they arbitrarily changed the terms.

Brad

Is anyone able to withdraw via crypto, I'm still puzzling around kyc verification.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

https://masterbucks.com/fee

 

[domainthiscom]

My withdraw is in pending since yesterday, Is anyone able to receive money?

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

My withdraw is in pending since yesterday, Is anyone able to receive money?

How did you withdraw?
Wire transfer?

 

[bmugford]

https://masterbucks.com/fee

This page was updated on October 10, 2022.

They froze people's Masterbucks funds from withdrawal for around a month, then showed up with a new fee structure?

That might be the case going forward, for new transactions.

However, the people who had their funds frozen did not agree to these terms. They were arbitrarily imposed by Epik/Masterbucks.

Anyone who had their funds frozen should be allowed to withdraw their funds under the previous fee structure, at the time it was frozen.

Brad

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

I'm afraid that people will be happy to pay 2.5% and run away from there.

 

[domainthiscom]

How did you withdraw?
Wire transfer?

yes wire

 

[Kt88]

I am really annoyed with the new fee structure.

I had over $240,000 with Masterbucks, and I've been charged nearly $5,000 to withdraw my own money, after paying hundreds more for the Escrow service.

 

[Amansaifi812]

I was surprised to see that 2.5% fee as well. I mean the buyer paid escrow fee on my behalf.

I’m being charged 670 USD for withdrawing my funds.

Can anyone tell me if they used to charge this or not?

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

There were no such deductions before.

 

[Digital Nomad]

So it seems the major update ("under maintenance") is mostly the new higher fees (edit: can this be verified?) which were not agreed upon before the freeze, and to give them your personal info for verification with selfies. Doesn't feel like an upgrade.

 

[Amansaifi812]

There were no such deductions before.

I just contacted customer support and they said the fee existed in September.