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.

 

[D Haynes]

Transfering out is working fine atleast. Moved 7 names out in 15 mins.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

@Bob Hawkes It seems they (Epik) used your name in the DNProtect review (see above).

Thanks for drawing my attention to it, @Future Sensors.

I do recall when their free tool to yield a domain risk for individual domains was released I gave it a spin with a few domain names and left a review (for the tool - I have never used the DNProtect service itself). The review is accurate as I recall what I felt and probably wrote. It was simple to use, free, and while the items could be checked other ways, was a handy compilation that I think would be helpful to some domain owners. I am surprised they only have 4 reviews, all same day (as I recall that was within a week or so of the release of the free risk checker).

I have and never had any association with DNProtect, other than using their free tool. They seem to have been successful in recovering a number of domains, just going by social media reports.

Bob

PS It looks to me after reading the reviews that 3, if not all 4, were for the free risk tool, rather than of DNProtect service. Definitely the first one is, and mine.

 

[Future Sensors]

Thanks for drawing my attention to it, @Future Sensors.

I do recall when their free tool to yield a domain risk for individual domains was released I gave it a spin with a few domain names and left a review (for the tool - I have never used the DNProtect service itself). The review is accurate as I recall what I felt and probably wrote. It was simple to use, free, and while the items could be checked other ways, was a handy compilation that I think would be helpful to some domain owners. I am surprised they only have 4 reviews, all same day (as I recall that was within a week or so of the release of the free risk checker).

I have and never had any association with DNProtect, other than using their free tool. They seem to have been successful in recovering a number of domains, just going by social media reports.

Thanks for this clarification, Bob.

One question still.

Did you actually write the review yourself, on May 25, on the TrustRatings.com website?

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Did you actually write the review yourself, on May 25, on the TrustRatings.com website?

I sometimes have trouble remembering what I did last week , but I think I recall leaving a review, and it is worded as I would say something, and matches my recollection of the tool. So pretty sure answer is Yes.

 

[Future Sensors]

I sometimes have trouble remembering what I did last week , but I think I recall leaving a review, and it is worded as I would say something, and matches my recollection of the tool. So pretty sure answer is Yes.

Okay, so May 25 was a very special day. The only 4 reviews were written on that day only. Then, no more....

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Okay, so May 25 was a very special day.

Just so everyone is clear, it is May 25, 2021, not this year.

 

[TheBuyerz]

For me:

Masterbucks is under maintenance.

Hope the issue will be fixed asap since I really need my money there.

Any Epik representent to inform us about the situation please?

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

At 101domain there is the possibility of prepayment.
You can see the status of the account in the section "Account Balance".
There is no hint of tokens.
I have money there too.
How is Masterbucks different from this?

 

[rh2000]

Surely, it has something to do with Hunter Biden's laptop.

Brad

Nah. It has no room for MasterBucks. It's already filled with pedophilia.

 

[koolishman]

Pros of NP,

EPIK was the cheapest option for many small -time domainers.

May be time has come to spread out your regs.

1.Which established registrar comes close?

2. Are you abandoning EPIK totally?

 

[atulghorpade]

Hi!

Created an account so I can commiserate with everyone having the same issue.

I’m currently in escrow and have the same headaches right now. It’s been 12 days of the escrow process and in the last 4 days, Masterbucks has been down.

I’m on the Buyer side and have wired the money over to Epik. The entire process is already basically done. The only pending item is for Masterbucks to go back up so Epik.com can disburse the funds to the Seller.

We had a deadline to close this out by the end of the month but Epik.com has been daily telling me that Masterbucks will be up again soon. But it hasn’t happened yet. Honestly, it feels like I’ve been scammed out of my money. Definitely was a wrong decision to use Epik for the escrow service.

I asked them and they said an Escrow cancellation will take at least 96 hours before we get the funds wired back. I’m waiting until Monday to see if this Masterbucks issue gets resolved. If Masterbucks is still down by next week, I’d have to get my Plan B in motion—which very likely is to cancel the service and get my money back through legal action even if that takes longer.

Feeling bad for you. Hope something positive will happen.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Are you fully aware of what you are saying? What's the point of sales if you can't withdraw the money?

Who are you defending against? Whose side are you on?

I'm on the side of the fellow Namepro members here, who deserve to be treated with respect by all the companies with which they do business.
My hope is that Epik can radically reform itself and make things right with their customers quickly. From the experiences described here, that's going to take some serious changes. They do apparently have significant sales, and have been an alternative to what otherwise now is an almost a monopolized registrar/marketplace arena.
Yes, its unacceptable to have sales but not be able to withdrawal the funds, but hopefully this will be corrected promptly.
Note though, that since my more positive post, I did carefully read Brad's experience. Knowing his experience, and seeing the ongoing lack of responsiveness, I'd be very hesitant to use their services in the future.

 

[Recons.Com]

At this point, it seems there is a risk all your Masterbucks can be gone.

I'll repeat that you should assess the risk and see if it makes sense using it for renewals (even at $15, you might think you are accepting 35% loss now vs the risk of losing 100%) or new regs.

New reg .com are $9.99. So maybe, you can use all of it for hand regs. You'll need to sell at 0.5% STR at $2000 post commission (or 1% STR at $1000 post commission) to break even. That seems certainly not hard.

And even if you somehow don't reach those targets, you'd still not lose much with possible upside of even earning additional 50%+ and keeping some of those names in your portfolio.

Who knows, maybe in a week or two they will bankrupt it and then it is definitely gone.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

At this point, it seems there is a risk all your Masterbucks can be gone.

I'll repeat that you should assess the risk and see if it makes sense using it for renewals (even at $15, you might think you are accepting 35% loss now vs the risk of losing 100%) or new regs.

The challenge is, of course, if someone really needs the money rather than the renewals. Is it worth waiting a little bit longer, to see if the withdrawal issue is resolved? Risky perhaps, and all the more reason the company really needs to provide more concrete guidance NOW.

 

[bmugford]

At this point, it seems there is a risk all your Masterbucks can be gone.

I'll repeat that you should assess the risk and see if it makes sense using it for renewals (even at $15, you might think you are accepting 35% loss now vs the risk of losing 100%) or new regs.

New reg .com are $9.99. So maybe, you can use all of it for hand regs. You'll need to sell at 0.5% STR at $2000 post commission (or 1% STR at $1000 post commission) to break even. That seems certainly not hard.

And even if you somehow don't reach those targets, you'd still not lose much with possible upside of even earning additional 50%+ and keeping some of those names in your portfolio.

Who knows, maybe in a week or two they will bankrupt it and then it is definitely gone.

Unfortunately, I guess this is what it has come to. People have to decide if they want to take a partial loss or risk a total loss.

Going by Epik's past history, you obviously can't rule out a hack. There could also be some other issue that lead to an inability to access funds. If this is really some type of liquidity issue, even the renewal option might run out at some point.

That renewal money is leaving the system to pay Verisign or whatever other registry is involved.

Brad

 

[Recons.Com]

Unfortunately, I guess this is what it has come to. People have to decide if they want to take a partial loss or risk a total loss.

Going by Epik's past history, you obviously can't rule out a hack. There could also be some other issue that lead to an inability to access funds. If this is really some type of liquidity issue, even the renewal option might run out at some point.

That renewal money is leaving the system to pay Verisign or whatever other registry is involved.

Brad

My logic is like this:

if it was a hack or true maintenance issue, they'd provide deadlines. There is no tech issue that a company with dedicated staff couldn't resolve within few days. And they could provide manual override. Basically, payout manually the money and then take notes and adjust before relaunching the system.

Since it is all not happening I consider chances for that money being completely wiped out very serious.

Mind you that Epik might still go on with just bankrupting masterbucks as a separate LLC.

Epik might still be allowing for usage of the funds going to Verisign as tolerable leak for some time to reduce the PR impact before admitting to the disaster, if there is a serious issue there. But they might close the loop either by announcing the bankruptcy earlier or making usage of the bucks part of the maintenance denial.

Hence my recommendation to use the funds asap. It is like with the failing bank. The guys who get there in the first couple of days might still salvage something.

 

[Recons.Com]

One possible scenario of what is happening:

The regulator investigated and found out that Epik/Masterbucks was engaged in tax avoidance and made them liable for all the unpaid taxes, interest and penalties. This all could result in considerable amount of many millions that Epik cannot possibly get from its clients that made gains.

So they might be scrambling to get the money. This might explain the frozen funds in MB, plus the price jack up to 35$ to milk the clients with the auto pay enabled, plus the wholesalers forced to pay $15. Even if long term the business might hurt, it might be just about saving it now.

Of course, this is just speculation, but it does explain few mysteries surrounding these events.

 

[Digital Nomad]

the My logic is like this:

if it was a hack or true maintenance issue, they'd provide deadlines. There is no tech issue that a company with dedicated staff couldn't resolve within few days. And they could provide manual override. Basically, payout manually the money and then take notes and adjust before relaunching the system.

Since it is all not happening I consider chances for that money being completely wiped out very serious.

Mind you that Epik might still go on with just bankrupting masterbucks as a separate LLC.

Epik might still be allowing for usage of the funds going to Verisign as tolerable leak for some time to reduce the PR impact before admitting to the disaster, if there is a serious issue there. But they might close the loop either by announcing the bankruptcy earlier or making usage of the bucks part of the maintenance denial.

Hence my recommendation to use the funds asap. It is like with the failing bank. The guys who get there in the first couple of days might still salvage something.

The recent opening of the new LLC points that it indeed is not a hack, it could also be they ran into regulation troubles as @jberryhill pointed out and are stuck until all is resolved. It could be so many things, who knows, until they make a public official statement, but yes, your advice is good to make use of your funds fast before it's too late, it's too risky indeed.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

One possible scenario of what is happening:

The regulator investigated and found out that Epik/Masterbucks was engaged in tax avoidance and made them liable for all the unpaid taxes, interest and penalties. This all could result in considerable amount of many millions that Epik cannot possibly get from its clients that made gains.

So they might be scrambling to get the money. This might explain the frozen funds in MB, plus the price jack up to 35$ to milk the clients with the auto pay enabled, plus the wholesalers forced to pay $15. Even if long term the business might hurt, it might be just about saving it now.

Of course, this is just speculation, but it does explain few mysteries surrounding these events.

Another additional possibility in the mix could be investigations into various cryptocurrency transactions. Perhaps various tax and money laundering concerns have been raised. Epik does have an array of crypto accepted, which could tend to lead to more regulatory oversight.
Granted, speculation here would be far less helpful, compared to Epik simply telling our members the specific date where the withdrawals will be available again.

 

[Digital Nomad]

Another additional possibility in the mix could be investigations into various cryptocurrency transactions. Perhaps various tax and money laundering concerns have been raised. Epik does have an array of crypto accepted, which could tend to lead to more regulatory oversight.
Granted, speculation here would be far less helpful, compared to Epik simply telling our members the specific date where the withdrawals will be available again.

The reason they are not telling us when it will be resolved is because they themselves do not know for whatever reason. Hopefully it will be resolved one day and is not a bankruptcy or so.

 

[DomainsGENERAL.com]

Which established registrar comes close?

Dynadot (I don't like they don't have any option for crypto deposits and withdrawals)
Porkbun
Namesilo
Sav (no crypto either :/ But prices are good)
Cosmotown (they're really cheap. Almost "too cheap"!? I don't have any experience with them. I registered an account but never used it until now. I have experience with the 4 above, and they're good overall, IMHO). I know SAV may have its own demons, but I never had any problem personally.

+ Regery (I have always been quite happy with them, but I don't like they're not directly ICANN registered)
+ Namecheap (A little more expensive. You sometimes have to ask twice things to support or be patient with them, but in the end, they have always been helpful. I'm quite happy with them. It's even the one I tend to trust the most)

My hope is that Epik can radically reform itself and make things right with their customers quickly.

I know it's not been long, but my withdrawal hasn't been cancelled for the moment.

What I just realized is that the "asking for verification" again thing now really appears to me as a move to gain time. They knew there would be no withdrawals (at least for a short while in the best of scenarios). They made people wait a little. Then asked for verification again. Then more wait. It now seems to me it was all on purpose. There was probably no "verification" to do again. They were playing the clock.

I'll repeat that you should assess the risk and see if it makes sense using it for renewals (even at $15, you might think you are accepting 35% loss now vs the risk of losing 100%) or new regs.

I do agree with you.
However, people who asked for a withdrawal are now stuck. I didn't account for this when I raised this idea of actually using the funds.

who knows

You're right. We are speculating.
Maybe they just wanted to move things into a new corporate structure and ran into technical problems they have troubles to get out of? Maybe there were some technical changes along the way and things went sideways? It doesn't appear the most plausible or logical explanation, but I guess it's also a possibility.

 

[tonyk2000]

Before asking customers to verify themselves (or to reverify), Epik might need to clarify how and where will such a sensitive Personally Identifiable Information be stored and processed. The loss of PII can result in substantial harm to individuals, including identity theft or other fraudulent use of the information. Moreover, are Epik systems secure enough to handle this? We all remember that Epik was hacked last year. Something like SOC 2 audit report might be helpful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_and_Organization_Controls

Epik staff members are located in different countries (I think the list includes, or, at some point of time included, India, Nigeria, Indonesia, Ukraine...). So the question - will PII be physically reviewed (downloaded by staff members) outside U.S., and, if so, are their home computers secure enough?

Extra reference:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/personally-identifiable-information-pii.asp

 

[Lox]

NP member: namepros .com/search/268524/


twitter .com/Kilgoar/status/1572037259620147200

twitter .com/s0urc3c0d3err0r/status/1564904978749071361

 

[jhm]

@enamebroker Any developments on this? In future, stay away from such things. Masterbucks may be a company owned by Epik, but getting a credit with them, you're basically at their mercy. Now this thing about maintenance, it's a real pain in the ass I'm sure. Not sure why that would delay a cash out, unusual. Stick with more conventional ways