Epik/Masterbucks stole us US$1.5M (Horror story - July 2023 update)

[DomainEmpire.com]

Hi guys,

most of you already know about the huge scam behind Epik/Masterbucks started last October 2022 when they began to ignore withdrawal requests of their customer money but there's much more now.

Recently these platforms have been acquired by a new company with the apparent intention to restore all service and pay all debts but this's just the beginning of a new scam !

At the end of July, we've hired an attorney who approached them by politely asking to allow us withdrawing all our funds but, after some days of silence, they replied by asserting to have never had any business relationship either with me (Luigi Marruso) nor with our company (DomainEmpire.com Ltd).
We've then discovered our 4 account have been terminated and all data erased from their servers to cancel any track of their debt.
It wasn't their lucky day because we had previously saved a full screenshot of our 4 account statements from the beginning till their last day of life.

We're now making such screenshots publicly available through our website to let the world knows with no possible doubt about this continued fraud.
Let's work together to spread the web with the whole story you'll find at our site with the purpose to send them to bankruptcy in our mutual interest and to terminate their fraudolent activity once for all considering they're heavily impacting the genuinity of our industry.
We'll now all to the file the letter printed on their paperhead where they asserted to have never had any deal with us.

Feel free to get in touch with us if you wish to help to writing articles to post in all related blogs/forums/social media to put an end of their career.

 

[Digital Nomad]

Here is when Rob was the 2nd in command but the 1st in command when “insurance“ is in the game. Hartzer part was DN Score & Recovery. Rob’s part was (was - thx to berryhill ) insurance on top. In essence, exploitation of H’s SEO reputation and Connections - lots of connections. R was over the place, everywhere, in rush to get “food“ for his thoughts. I & my partners, we are not “the food”.

Now, this thread is about $1.5M ….

Regards

Who are you Lox, keep up the great work, you are one of the few I really like here, you are like a puzzle. Keep up with the good work with your bots and the "(C)ommunity", you know.

 

[UseYourWords]

Hi guys,

most of you already know about the huge scam behind Epik/Masterbucks started last October 2022 when they began to ignore withdrawal requests of their customer money but there's much more now.

Recently these platforms have been acquired by a new company with the apparent intention to restore all service and pay all debts but this's just the beginning of a new scam !

At the end of July, we've hired an attorney who approached them by politely asking to allow us withdrawing all our funds but, after some days of silence, they replied by asserting to have never had any business relationship either with me (Luigi Marruso) nor with our company (DomainEmpire.com Ltd).
We've then discovered our 4 account have been terminated and all data erased from their servers to cancel any track of their debt.
It wasn't their lucky day because we had previously saved a full screenshot of our 4 account statements from the beginning till their last day of life.

We're now making such screenshots publicly available through our website to let the world knows with no possible doubt about this continued fraud.
Let's work together to spread the web with the whole story you'll find at our site with the purpose to send them to bankruptcy in our mutual interest and to terminate their fraudolent activity once for all considering they're heavily impacting the genuinity of our industry.
We'll now all to the file the letter printed on their paperhead where they asserted to have never had any deal with us.

Feel free to get in touch with us if you wish to help to writing articles to post in all related blogs/forums/social media to put an end of their career.

Hey, so I'm in this situation where, when I purchased names for, say $10, they actually charged my credit card for like $46. This happened over two dozen times, at all different prices. Some were like $24 but I was charged $140, others were like $30 but I was charged $85. I really don't have the time or patience to deal with this sort of nonsense. They did send me a check for one of the instances, but like I said, there are two dozen instances. I do not necessarily believe what they did was intentional, but at minimum it was bad code and cause me a ton of damages. Please advise. Like I said, I don't have the heart to deal with this sort of thing. I have a lot of smoking gun proof, such as winning trade confirmations, bid confirmations, receipts sent upon successful bid to confirm a sale, and then finally, a receipt showing a price and credit card charge that's very different than my winning bid. The one odd thing is that never did they under-charge me. Each instance is an over-charge; which might indicate something about intentions. That said, I'm not here to point fingers or get anybody in trouble... but I do not like being stolen from... that's for sure.

 

[bmugford]

Hey, so I'm in this situation where, when I purchased names for, say $10, they actually charged my credit card for like $46. This happened over two dozen times, at all different prices. Some were like $24 but I was charged $140, others were like $30 but I was charged $85. I really don't have the time or patience to deal with this sort of nonsense. They did send me a check for one of the instances, but like I said, there are two dozen instances. I do not necessarily believe what they did was intentional, but at minimum it was bad code and cause me a ton of damages. Please advise. Like I said, I don't have the heart to deal with this sort of thing. I have a lot of smoking gun proof, such as winning trade confirmations, bid confirmations, receipts sent upon successful bid to confirm a sale, and then finally, a receipt showing a price and credit card charge that's very different than my winning bid. The one odd thing is that never did they under-charge me. Each instance is an over-charge; which might indicate something about intentions. That said, I'm not here to point fingers or get anybody in trouble... but I do not like being stolen from... that's for sure.

It is rather suspicious that there would be so many billing errors, and only in their favor.

I would give Epik support a short period of time to resolve the issue.

If they don't, I would call your bank / credit card company and dispute each charge.

The burden of proof then falls on the merchant to show that they were legitimate charges.

Brad

 

[UseYourWords]

It is rather suspicious that there would be so many billing errors, and only in their favor.

I would give Epik support a short period of time to resolve the issue.

If they don't, I would call your bank / credit card company and dispute each charge.

The burden of proof then falls on the merchant to show that they were legitimate charges.

Brad

Right; but there have also been instances where they literally stole domain names out of my account as well. Or completely failed to actually register names for which I paid in full; where, for example, I paid for a registration, received an emailed receipt, received emailed confirmations of registration via Epik... and then two weeks I'd go to change the name server, only to notice the name completely wasn't ever even registered. This happened no less than 3 separate times on 3 separate names. Like blows my mind; they never actually registered the the names... and had I never gone to change the name servers, I would have never known. And again, they once literally stole an extremely valuable name right out of my account. I renewed it, they sent me a receipt, and then it expired... but the now somebody has the name at Epik on the drop. They gave me such a hard time about it, and made me jump through so many hoops to "prove" them wrong, even though I have smoking guns, that I literally just went away. But we're approaching a cumulative number of instances to the point where all it becomes economies of scale to fight all these little individual battles as one big, very serious case.

 

[iam22lr]

hired an attorney

Have you considered getting everyone impacted represented by the same attorney? I for one would be willing to give up a significant portion of what they owe me in exchange for seeing everyone behind this scam locked up.

 

[Daniel Owens]

It is rather suspicious that there would be so many billing errors, and only in their favor.

I would give Epik support a short period of time to resolve the issue.

If they don't, I would call your bank / credit card company and dispute each charge.

The burden of proof then falls on the merchant to show that they were legitimate charges.

Brad

He can dispute the charge maybe like you said but he should double check epik policy to see if chargebacks result in account suspension or not. While I have sincere symphony it would be bad if you lost access to every domain at epik because of this. Another register a guy posted and had issue after filing chargebacks of account suspense just not sure what epik's rules are on that. I'd probably try and transfer every domain out before a chargeback just my opinion. Best of luck, warm wishes and sorry that epik is trying to rip you off.

 

[bmugford]

He can dispute the charge maybe like you said but he should double check epik policy to see if chargebacks result in account suspension or not. While I have sincere symphony it would be bad if you lost access to every domain at epik because of this. Another register a guy posted and had issue after filing chargebacks of account suspense just not sure what epik's rules are on that. I'd probably try and transfer every domain out before a chargeback just my opinion. Best of luck, warm wishes and sorry that epik is trying to rip you off.

I have no idea about these allegations, but let's assume they are true.

Like I said, I would give them a short period of time to fix it.

Nothing in a TOS would make it legal to fraudulently bill a credit card more than was agreed to...multiple times.

The customer's credit card and Epik's payment processor certainly have policies regarding unauthorized charges.

It's a tough position to be in when you have domains at a registrar that can't be trusted.

Brad

 

[bmugford]

Right; but there have also been instances where they literally stole domain names out of my account as well. Or completely failed to actually register names for which I paid in full; where, for example, I paid for a registration, received an emailed receipt, received emailed confirmations of registration via Epik... and then two weeks I'd go to change the name server, only to notice the name completely wasn't ever even registered. This happened no less than 3 separate times on 3 separate names. Like blows my mind; they never actually registered the the names... and had I never gone to change the name servers, I would have never known. And again, they once literally stole an extremely valuable name right out of my account. I renewed it, they sent me a receipt, and then it expired... but the now somebody has the name at Epik on the drop. They gave me such a hard time about it, and made me jump through so many hoops to "prove" them wrong, even though I have smoking guns, that I literally just went away. But we're approaching a cumulative number of instances to the point where all it becomes economies of scale to fight all these little individual battles as one big, very serious case.

Well, other options would be -

1.) Hire an attorney.
2.) File a complaint with ICANN, if relevant.
3.) File a complaint with IC3 (https://www.ic3.gov/Home/ComplaintChoice)
4.) File a complaint with relevant state authorities, etc.

Nothing Epik has done makes me expect them to voluntarily "do the right thing".

They would probably have to be compelled to do it.

Brad

 

[Daniel Owens]

They would probably have to be compelled to do it.

Brad

Do you think icann can shut down epik because of these unethical business practices?

 

[Daniel Owens]

Do you think icann can shut down epik because of these unethical business practices?

Also if epik were shutdown by icann hopefully, they'd make it possible to move domains out.

 

[UseYourWords]

He can dispute the charge maybe like you said but he should double check epik policy to see if chargebacks result in account suspension or not. While I have sincere symphony it would be bad if you lost access to every domain at epik because of this. Another register a guy posted and had issue after filing chargebacks of account suspense just not sure what epik's rules are on that. I'd probably try and transfer every domain out before a chargeback just my opinion. Best of luck, warm wishes and sorry that epik is trying to rip you off.

We take this post as an overt threat; and it will be treated as such.

 

[Future Sensors]

We take this post as an overt threat; and it will be treated as such.

What do you mean?

 

[Samer]

We take this post as an overt threat; and it will be treated as such.

Danny’s post (@Daniel Owens) was benign.
This is a clear misunderstanding, you are getting offended from someone trying to find, solve issue. Danny even gave you well wishes at the end!

 

[UseYourWords]

Danny’s post (@Daniel Owens) was benign.
This is a clear misunderstanding, you are getting offended from someone trying to find, solve issue. Danny even gave you well wishes at the end!

It was clearly a threat, veiled as something different. If you do this, then here’s what will happen to you — that was the statement.

I will not tolerate anybody threatening to hijack property as a punitive response to victims exercising their rights. Any inkling of such an action would be met with a very harsh response.

You can get away with abusing people for only so long; but if it’s incessant and regular, you will eventually encounter somebody with the means, anger, and case to fight back.

 

[marijuanadomain]

Those people need to go to jail , 23hrs 45mins confinment without windows and just 15mins for sheeet outside and shower once every month.

 

[branding]

Danny’s post (@Daniel Owens) was benign.
This is a clear misunderstanding, you are getting offended from someone trying to find, solve issue. Danny even gave you well wishes at the end!

He's rightfully offended as Dan's advice is full of crap. He's missing the point and basically trolling these threads.

He's very much aware of the issues at hand at Epik. Always has been but playing dumb. He should be ashamed of himself.

 

[marijuanadomain]

He's rightfully offended as Dan's advice is full of crap. He's missing the point and basically trolling these threads.

He's very much aware of the issues at hand at Epik. Always has been but playing dumb. He should be ashamed of hisself.

who is @Daniel Owens?

 

[branding]

who is @Daniel Owens?

Dunno. Don't care. Definitely a troll though.

Edit: do you own DD and the truth will be revealed. Dont trust nP numbers.

 

[tnames]

that is terrible, my feelings are with victims. Why this company was allowed to create this mess??

 

[70ym]

I am shock that you have $1.5m in epik...

 

[TheBuyerz]

Am victim aswell, they stole me 6000$.

I succeeded to transfer some domains from there but unfortunately I lost some of them because Epik want my credit card details so they scam me more.

@NamePros should disallow any advertissement for this criminal company! I was influanced from this forum to use their scamming platform (I am not accusing but must stop this for futur membres).

 

[kor]

Just wondering, why did you leave $1.5m in an unreliable company?

 

[NicTraders]

Just wondering, why did you leave $1.5m in an unreliable company?

I think if you read their story, Domain Empire had found Epik to be reliable... until they weren't. By then it was too late.

 

[winst]

Epik had a data breach back in Sep 2021. For some reason it felt like such a long time ago.

 

[kor]

Domain Empire had found Epik to be reliable

Nothing is 100% reliable.

Not even banks.