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.

 

[bmugford]

This is quite a disturbing review:

https://www.trustpilot.com/reviews/637f4b70252cba2c02e23eae

DomainEmpire.com with apparently $1.5 million stuck, and they claim that Epik did indeed offer interest rates to avoid having to pay out.

They also think Epik will lose their ICANN accreditation.

By the way, the thread about the Masterbucks' "maintenance" over at the other forum presumably owned by Epik seems to have mysteriously disappeared.

Yes, that review is very troubling.

I have bought several domains from Domain Empire over the years, totaling many thousands of dollars.
I know they are highly active domain sellers.

I have no reason to doubt their claims.

I believe what we know is really just the tip of the iceberg. The actual story behind Rob's exit as CEO, how the customer funds were used (commingled), the actual amount of debt, etc. is unknown.

The review says -

"We've enough resources and motivations to sue this company and to make the whole story public being in the position to proof that Rob Monster deceived and frauded us despite the fact we trusted his company more than our own bank."

If action is taken, I don't personally think Epik is in strong position with the admission of commingled funds.

Again, breaches of trust like this are textbook examples of what ultimately can lead to piercing of the corporate veil when it comes to personal liability for the actions of a company.

Brad

 

[Chris Hydrick]

This is quite a disturbing review:

https://www.trustpilot.com/reviews/637f4b70252cba2c02e23eae

DomainEmpire.com with apparently $1.5 million stuck, and they claim that Epik did indeed offer interest rates to avoid having to pay out.

They also think Epik will lose their ICANN accreditation.

By the way, the thread about the Masterbucks' "maintenance" over at the other forum presumably owned by Epik seems to have mysteriously disappeared.

Indeed!!

Hi all,
Let's do it short: we're another victim of Epik with a debt of some hundred thousand dollars towards them.
No need to enter in details here but may you confirm what's the current legal address of the company, please ?

We're carefully analyzing the whole situation while looking for the best way to fight against them.
We've already warned all our customers and partners to stay away from them forever but you can't imagine how many problems and damages this company is causing us in these weeks.

@DomainEmpire.com .. Thanks for the detailed trustpilot review <<<< a must read !!! The entire review was of notable interest!!

In light of this trust pilot review, to me this raises two questions:

(1) Considering DomainEmpire is owed $1.5mil, did masterbucks lie when they reported the outstanding balance was $800k? I mean, $1.5mil > $800k....

(2) Secondly, If a $4 million debt was cut to $800k (albeit those figures are certain in question now) how much of the debt was converted to epik in store credit, vs how much is still owed in masterbucks. If too much funds are extended in epik store credit, does that mean epik will eventually be unable to pay verisign if epik instore credit use exceeds epiks available funds/liquidity? =AHHHHHHHHHHH!!

I'm curious on what epiks intent was with this offer.

"After that we got an email inviting us to reinvest our funds in Epik services/domain purchases with no option to withdraw them."

ie what the "with no option to withdraw them" means, because when Rob Davis was promoting images of epik in store gift cards, the argument between masterbucks and epik in-store credit seemed to be a key detail.

A friend had some funds instore credit left over in their epik in store credit, and contacted epik support to figure out how to withdraw that epik credit. Epik chat support forwarded the request accounting. Will be curious to hear if epik is locking instore credits, or if epik is allowing in store credit to be converted to masterbucks and withdrawn.

 

[Gabriel360]

This is quite a disturbing review:

https://www.trustpilot.com/reviews/637f4b70252cba2c02e23eae

DomainEmpire.com with apparently $1.5 million stuck, and they claim that Epik did indeed offer interest rates to avoid having to pay out.

They also think Epik will lose their ICANN accreditation.

By the way, the thread about the Masterbucks' "maintenance" over at the other forum presumably owned by Epik seems to have mysteriously disappeared.

This is criminal.

Domain Empire seems to be too lenient in handling the matter. How do they expect Epik to afford to pay 6% additional interest at 0.5% per month when they cannot even afford to pay you money that ACTUALLY came through the company from third parties.

Obviously, a delay tactic employed by someone with shady intentions.

Plus, Epik is not a bank or a fintech corporation. Their offer to pay interest with their funny money is a HUGE red flag.

That aside, DomainEmpire should have called their BS about the amount owed IMMEDIATELY after Royce's interview.

Too lenient by far.

 

[Derek Peterson]

Yikes! So much for that 800k ballance sheet.

Epik currently owes over $10,000,000 to customers and ex-investors, that I know of and have been able to confirm thus far, and they have several civil and criminal actions falling on them over the coming weeks.

 

[gme559]

So the simple advice is to not put domain on epik right ? as I'm new to this I stick with sav and afternic ?
Thanks for all your reviews

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

I already have a case filed with the Attorney General of Washington. But the ATG themselves take 4-6 weeks to resolve their process. My case was logged on Sept 24 and we are still far from even the lower end of that range.

An update: My Seller got paid 8minutes ago!

Editing to add: $420+ was lost in the forex change from September to today. I'm asking Lars, the COO, on what happens to that money. Is Epik keeping it, sending it to the Seller, or refunding to me as the Buyer in escrow--I'll update when they give me a response.

Sounds like you were successful in obtaining the funds. It's sad to hear that others are still struggling with this matter.
Was your resolution, in part, related to the Washington Attorney General office? Do you know if they still looking into this matter as a whole? Would this be a potential resource for others here with ongoing disputes about their funds?

 

[Derek Peterson]

This is quite a disturbing review:

https://www.trustpilot.com/reviews/637f4b70252cba2c02e23eae

DomainEmpire.com with apparently $1.5 million stuck, and they claim that Epik did indeed offer interest rates to avoid having to pay out.

They also think Epik will lose their ICANN accreditation.

By the way, the thread about the Masterbucks' "maintenance" over at the other forum presumably owned by Epik seems to have mysteriously disappeared.

It was very brave of Luigi to go public. I hope everyone appreciates how brave he is for doing so. His main reason for going public is to warn others so they aren't caught by Monster as well.

Rob Monster behaves like a real criminal, threatening people with all sorts of things, hiring weird trolls to attack people in hopes of silencing and gathering information, hiring psychopaths to harass and intimidate people and their families to silence them and now that he feels the walls closing in on him he is capable of about anything. We are talking about many, many millions of dollars, over $10M that we know about so far, and people do crazy things for such amounts.

I hope everyone now understands why I will not ever reveal my sources for any of the information I am publishing but also realize that I would never put myself in a position where Rob Monster could have a legit defamation action against me, ironically, though, I have a bunch against him and his weird trolls.

 

[Derek Peterson]

This is criminal.

Domain Empire seems to be too lenient in handling the matter. How do they expect Epik to afford to pay 6% additional interest at 0.5% per month when they cannot even afford to pay you money that ACTUALLY came through the company from third parties.

Obviously, a delay tactic employed by someone with shady intentions.

Plus, Epik is not a bank or a fintech corporation. Their offer to pay interest with their funny money is a HUGE red flag.

That aside, DomainEmpire should have called their BS about the amount owed IMMEDIATELY after Royce's interview.

Too lenient by far.

Right on all counts. And there are many more such cases. The thing you have to understand though, is it was never meant to last long term, it is what is called a Ponzi scheme, they only last long enough to suck in as much money as possible. Rob tried to extend the scheme by defrauding an investor and tricking them out of $32,000,000 but the investor figured it out and forced the money, some of it so far, to be returned, which started the collapse of the ponzi.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

So the simple advice is to not put domain on epik right ?

That summary seems to be a safe bet now.

...
(if the ship is in deed sinking) ... I'm wondering if it's also advised to spend any remaining instore credit leftover on renewing domains ASAP... just to ensure we get some value out of the in store credit in renewal time, before transferring out?

As, if a epik in store credit bank run so to speak were to happen with possible over extended epik in store credit, would this leave epik unable to pay verisign, and forced into bankruptcy? If so, then what happens to masterbucks or epik in store credit then? domains still held at epik? or forever domain contracts?

...

FWIW, I checked several forever domain registration and most had 2032 expirations, albeit a few had 2031 expirations. Not sure if there are additional possible lawsuits to be levied should epik fall out of breach in their forever contract, ie if liquidity hits hard enough and epik stop renewing domains to max whois year. At present rates it looks like the cards could collapse before those sort of signs would emerge. Certainly would be nice if epik could offer some assurance, as of right now, I'm starting to lead to the oh shit moment, epik might actually be going down, and much quicker than I thought. What a mess!

 

[Derek Peterson]

Again, if anyone was promised a return on their Masterbucks holdings please let everyone know here or send me a private and confidential email to [email protected]. I will never reveal my sources. As you have seen here, I have had some very strange and unprofessional people attacking me and saying unkind things and trying to bait me into revealing sources but I will not. I have proven right on every single thing I have said and they all look like arrogant fools. I think once people stop being afraid of Rob Monster's threats and thugs we will see many, many more victims popping up. I have already had very many reach out to me directly via email.

Also, please let us or me know if you had any other kind of odd things happen, like having your funds converted without their consent, threats, etc.

This information will be very helpful for us to bring justice to Rob Monster for his financial crimes. While the sad reality is that at some point there just isn't going to me enough money to go around so many will probably lose a lot of money, we can bring justice.

I am pleased to say that our articles are already being used by several attorneys to file lawsuits against Epik and Rob Monster and now hopefully we can do similarly with some criminal charges.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

As you have seen here, I have had some very strange and unprofessional people attacking me and saying unkind things and trying to bait me

While I am not proud that yesterdays forum comments were dumpsterfire-esque, I am glad @DomainEmpire.com shared his testimony. Hearing he is owed more than the amount masterbucks had claimed was owed, and subsequent offer to exchange for in store credit (possible leading to the overleveraging of epik in store credit), was the final straw for me. Had he not came out with this, my sense of urgency to part ways with epik once and for all, would not have risen to the level it's at now.

I Just cancelled some old failed epik transfers, received epik credit, depleted said credit renewing domains, and started the process of transferring our remaining 250 domains out of epik!! I don't want to see my domains stuck in a registrar that could quiite possibly be the next pheenix.

 

[bmugford]

While I am not proud that yesterdays forum comments were dumpsterfire-esque, I am glad @DomainEmpire.com shared his testimony. Hearing he is owed more than the amount masterbucks had claimed was owed, and subsequent offer to exchange for in store credit (possible leading to the overleveraging of epik in store credit), was the final straw for me. Had he not came out with this, my sense of urgency to part ways with epik once and for all, would not have risen to the level it's at now.

I Just cancelled some old failed epik transfers, received epik credit, depleted said credit renewing domains, and started the process of transferring our remaining 250 domains out of epik!! I don't want to see my domains stuck in a registrar that could quiite possibly be the next pheenix.

Yes, the fact that basically everyone at Epik is still radio silent months later is not reassuring. This is a company that was always highly engaged with domainers, and stated they offered "legendary customer support".

Of the few things that have been said publicly, at least some like saying Masterbucks holders were notified before the system went down has been proven to be factually untrue, from all reports. There is not one single report of someone being notified before their funds were frozen.

On top of that, it seems like they still owe far more than has been stated. I certainly trust Domain Empire more than Epik.

If Epik does fail, the situation with domains there could be complex for a number of reasons.

1.) With domain privacy (Anonymize) it can be hard to unwind who actually owns a domain.

2.) Epik actually owns a large portfolio of domains. If there was some type of receivership, these would likely be held as part of their assets.

3.) Because of the first two, it might be a difficult process to separate customer owned domains from Epik owned domains.

Brad

 

[bmugford]

I think once people stop being afraid of Rob Monster's threats and thugs we will see many, many more victims popping up. I have already had very many reach out to me directly via email.

Yes, when someone is a supposed free speech champion, it is not really on brand to go out of their way to try to stifle free speech, or craft a narrative that is not representative of what is actually going on.

The shenanigans going on with Trust Pilot reviews is a good example, from flagging legitimate reviews to reported back and forth conversions that have gone on behind the scenes regarding some of these reviews.

Another example is the wording in their imposed Masterbucks TOS -

1. Feedback and Reviews
   
   1. MB welcomes any ideas and/or suggestions regarding improvements or additions to the Services. Under no circumstances shall any disclosure of any idea, suggestion or related material or any review of the Services, Third Party Services or any Third Party Provider (collectively, “Feedback") to MB be subject to any obligation of confidentiality or expectation of compensation. By submitting Feedback to MB (whether submitted directly to MB or posted on any MB hosted forum or page), you waive any and all rights in the Feedback and that MB is free to implement and use the Feedback if desired, as provided by you or as modified by MB, without obtaining permission or license from you or from any third party. Any reviews of a Third Party Service or Third Party Provider that you submit to MB must be accurate to the best of your knowledge, and must not be illegal, obscene, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, infringing of intellectual property rights, or otherwise injurious to third parties or objectionable. MB reserves the right (but not the obligation) to remove or edit Feedback of Third Party Services or Third Party Providers, but does not regularly inspect posted Feedback.

It’s illegal to ban honest reviews​

https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2017/02/its-illegal-ban-honest-reviews

Brad

 

[Derek Peterson]

Yes, when someone is a supposed free speech champion, it is not really on brand to go out of their way to try to stifle free speech, or craft a narrative that is not representative of what is actually going on.

The shenanigans going on with Trust Pilot reviews is a good example, from flagging legitimate reviews to reported back and forth conversions that have gone on behind the scenes regarding some of these reviews.

Another example is the wording in their imposed Masterbucks TOS -

1. Feedback and Reviews
   
   1. MB welcomes any ideas and/or suggestions regarding improvements or additions to the Services. Under no circumstances shall any disclosure of any idea, suggestion or related material or any review of the Services, Third Party Services or any Third Party Provider (collectively, “Feedback") to MB be subject to any obligation of confidentiality or expectation of compensation. By submitting Feedback to MB (whether submitted directly to MB or posted on any MB hosted forum or page), you waive any and all rights in the Feedback and that MB is free to implement and use the Feedback if desired, as provided by you or as modified by MB, without obtaining permission or license from you or from any third party. Any reviews of a Third Party Service or Third Party Provider that you submit to MB must be accurate to the best of your knowledge, and must not be illegal, obscene, threatening, defamatory, invasive of privacy, infringing of intellectual property rights, or otherwise injurious to third parties or objectionable. MB reserves the right (but not the obligation) to remove or edit Feedback of Third Party Services or Third Party Providers, but does not regularly inspect posted Feedback.

It’s illegal to ban honest reviews​

https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2017/02/its-illegal-ban-honest-reviews

Brad

Yes, Rob Monster has never believed in free speech, it was always a gimmick for him, a schtick to play as part of an affinity grift. The real test of free speech is criticism, not allowing beheading videos or mass killings, etc. China, etc have no problem with so called "hate speech" but try to criticize the govt and see what you get.

I first met Rob Monster in 2018, right after he took on Gab as a customer. I had done several videos exposing Gab for selling child porn behind paywalls and lying about their user numbers by a factor of close to 1,000, and thereby committing massive SEC fraud for millions of dollars. Rob demanded I take down my videos and transfer all my domains to Epik or else. Gab being a big deal with lots of users was important to him as the entrance into the free speech affinity grift. I declined his offer of peace and escalated, as I tend to do. Then a few months later Rob began marketing his fake VPN, which he claimed was fully secure and guaranteed privacy, because he was trying to trick some investors into thinking he was bigger than he was by adding more smoke to his smoke and mirrors show. I discovered it was actually a white label that he had no control over and no way to guarantee anyone's privacy and started warning others. He became furious and started with the threats again and when that failed begged me to call him on his cell and then began confessing and repenting and asking for my forgiveness but literally within 48 hours was right back to his old self. He is a sick man with no sense of honor or concern for others and I hope he goes to jail and never has a chance to hurt anyone ever again.

Thank you for the link. That will be helpful! I didn't know there was actually a law specifically related to such things.

I have had a bunch of totally new people reach out to me via email today, never before seen on Trust Pilot or Namepros or anywhere! Very large amounts and very similar stories of having funds converted without their consent. Literally stealing money from users' accounts. Insane stuff.

 

[tonyk2000]

"Funds converted". From what to what? Sorry I didn't get it. Some pages ago, it was revealed that the "new and improved" masterbucks system does not offer exchange (at least for withdrawal purporses) anymore, so one cannot request BTC payout for USD-funded transaction for example. Common sense prompts that some sort of exchange should still exist (what if it is BTC-funded sale, but the seller wants to use the funds to pay for other epik services?). Now, as we are speaking about funds converted without consent, what really happened? Did masterbucks account holders find their previous exchange transactions reversed? Or, did Epik simply convert all crypto and EURO balances to USD, using current exchange rate (which would mean losses for many customers)?

 

[Derek Peterson]

"Funds converted". From what to what? Sorry I didn't get it. Some pages ago, it was revealed that the "new and improved" masterbucks system does not offer exchange (at least for withdrawal purporses) anymore, so one cannot request BTC payout for USD-funded transaction for example. Common sense prompts that some sort of exchange should still exist (what if it is BTC-funded sale, but the seller wants to use the funds to pay for other epik services?). Now, as we are speaking about funds converted without consent, what really happened? Did masterbucks account holders find their previous exchange transactions reversed? Or, did Epik simply convert all crypto and EURO balances to USD, using current exchange rate (which would mean losses for many customers)?

Epik converted their BTC into USD and then purchased Masterbucks and kept the USD for themselves, leaving the user with Masterbucks that can't be withdrawn/converted.

 

[bmugford]

@bmugford -- I assume you received in store epik credit from the PianoMoving fiasco? Does your instore credit received invoice perhaps show anything differently than mine, perhaps a payment method for where the $500 of epik in store credit appeared from?

I don't want to sound cynical and don't assume in-store epik credit was given out like candy, just trying to piece things together, as in-store credit is shirley accounted for somewhere and not just created out of thin air. Right?

I rejected their offer. Rob accused me of acting in "bad faith" and making "defamatory" statements.

You know, the old classic playbook. They fuck up, then play the victim.

I have no idea if they added it to my account or not.

I have not even logged into my account since they removed the domain without authorization.

Brad

 

[tonyk2000]

As per ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement,

This Agreement may be terminated before its expiration by ICANN in any of the following circumstances:

5.5.2 Registrar:
...

5.5.2.2 is disciplined by the government of its domicile for conduct involving dishonesty or misuse of funds of others...

So, in light of lawsuits coming (such as Domainempire case), the future of Epik as registrar is questionable even without bankruptcy. However, it says may be terminated (not must), so only the time will tell.

 

[bmugford]

Epik converted their BTC into USD and then purchased Masterbucks and kept the USD for themselves, leaving the user with Masterbucks that can't be withdrawn/converted.

Well, if that is the case -

Considering Masterbucks LLC did not even exist at the time the funds were frozen...
Considering there didn't appear to be any existing TOS...
Considering no one actually agreed to the new TOS...
Considering it was imposed, with no option to discontinue business and withdraw funds...

I have to wonder about the legality of that scheme.

Brad

 

[Derek Peterson]

Well, if that is the case -

Considering Masterbucks LLC did not even exist at the time the funds were frozen...
Considering there didn't appear to be any existing TOS...
Considering no one actually agreed to the new TOS...
Considering it was imposed, with no option to discontinue business and withdraw funds...

I have to wonder about the legality of that scheme.

Brad

Yeah, it's getting crazier every day. Not only are the amounts ballooning but new crimes are being revealed. I have a pretty good handle on the Ponzi scheme using masterbucks and escrow transactions and how he used those fake revenues from "forever domains", etc and pumped revenues from all the companies he was "acquiring" to defraud investors but this is another level. It is flat out stealing, like real felony theft, and done several times. (your welcome people that have posted testimony of forced transactions in your accounts because now Monster will pay you first).

Who knows what we will find next. I would not be surprised if we see some huge numbers involved in real money laundering internationally, as those early masterbucks victims were claiming, before Monster bought their silence.

The masterbucks tokens scam is actually very similar to the FTX scam but even they didn't go to the level of breaking into accounts and taking people's real money and exchanging it for fake token. 't is just insane acts of desperation and very illegal on many levels.

The ponzi scheme is illegal, the running of an unlicensed exchange is illegal, the defrauding investors is illegal, the threatening users is illegal and the stealing users' funds is obviously illegal. A conviction for any one of these actual crimes (grand theft, ponzi schemes, money laundering, wire fraud, extortion, etc) is 10 years. Even if he is able to get some rich fool to give him a ton of cash, which hopefully he will not be able to, by playing the free speech victim card he is still gonna pay for these crimes but thankfully we will have Brian Royce to run the show.

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

Yeah, it's getting crazier every day. Not only are the amounts ballooning

How much frozen money do you currently have on your records?

 

[Embrand]

I think Brian Royce is hoping for Elon Musk to buy Epik, because apparently Royce has time to compliment the Twitter owner all the time. But I have my doubts that Musk is spending day and night trying to figure out whether to buy the Swiss bank of domains...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1596023229013164033

 

[bmugford]

I think Brian Royce is hoping for Elon Musk to buy Epik, because apparently Royce has time to complement the Twitter owner all the time. But I have my doubts that Musk is spending day and night trying to figure out whether to buy the Swiss bank of domains...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1596023229013164033

Hey, it's good to see he has time to kiss Elon's ass but not deal with a customer that according to TrustPilot.com is owed $1.5M.

Dude really says "more speech" is the way forward while he is radio silent and refuses to interact with customers that are owed money.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1596074618858926082

 

[Lox]

Minute 8:40
Amplify.io. We built a proprietary NFT marketplace called fraktion, fraktion with a k....

People shouldn’t do business w Amplify (missing terms) without ToS ToC .

Regards

 

[Derek Peterson]

How much frozen money do you currently have on your records?

Unpaid Masterbucks = ~$3,000,000 (much of this was forced conversions (stolen) and a little later in the game, when they got super desperate)
Unpaid General = ~$11,000,000 (most of that money was acquired through fraud and facing criminal actions if not returned).

This is just what we know about. It's probably much, much more. For much of the General Unpaid debts, they have/had a deal in place where they are required to pay ~$200,000 per month but if they fail on those payments bad things happen for them, like potentially criminal actions and forced bankruptcy, which would start the cascade effect to crash ponzi into the dirt and probably reveal a bunch of other shady stuff. Those payments are probably their number one priority and when the don't have it they grab it out of people's accounts.