CRYPTOPAY.ME - locked card and requested ID when told it's not required before

[lmcompany]

[UPDATE 11/17/16]
THIS CASE HAS BEEN RESOLVED, THANKS CRYPTOPAY SUPPORT.
I CONFIRM I RECEIVED MY MONEY AND THE CARD HAS BEEN UNLOCKED
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some time ago I was in need of legit virtual visa issuer that accepts Bitcoin.
My main criteria was anonymity, all I wanted is to avoid sending any personal IDs via the Internet.
The winner of my attention was `cryptopay.me`, I was very happy with their service until today.

One of their site pages (https://cryptopay.me/bitcoin-debit-card) clearly states the following:

No ID verification required

Cryptopay customers are not required to complete ID verification provided if they are happy to stay within the lower debit card limits. It is possible to stay anonymous where desired.

Screenshot of this quote in case they remove it after this post: https://i.imgur.com/4WXT0fs.png

I was like wow, "this is exactly what I'm looking for!".

Today my card's transaction history has stopped showing some last authorization, as well as I got a declined transaction twice when tried to make a purchase.
I wrote about it to their support and got the unexpected:

FROM: support@cryptopay.me - Stanislav Petuhov (Cryptopay Ltd)

Nov 16, 12:41 GMT

Hello,

Your card has been blocked by our card issuer. To unlock it please provide verification documents:

1.) A valid government issued ID - high-quality images of the following documents are acceptable:
- International passport (double page)
- National ID card (both sides)
- Driving license (both sides)
Important: To avoid delays when verifying your account, make sure that your submitted documents are:
- Entirely visible (watermarks are permitted);
- Images of high quality (color images, with resolution of 300dpi or higher);
- Valid ID documents with expiry date clearly visible.

2.) A proof of residency - a high quality scanned images or a direct online extract of the following documents: Bank statement, Utility bill, Tax return, council tax bill, Certificate of residency issued by a government, within the last 3 months and addressed to your name and home address.
We cannot accept mobile phone bill or a credit card statement as proof of residence.

Note: For languages such as that use non-Latin characters, a certified translation of your proof of residence document will greatly speed up processing time.

Best regards,
Stanislav Petuhov

Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/ZnVcE2Z.png

Now I am not allowed(wtf?) to get my money back until I accomplish the verification.
Of course I answered that I am not going to provide any documents as their site states I don't need to, and their 'issuer' can stay with my 500 euros.

Now I withdrew 6 BTC i had there and will not use this service anymore.
Now I'm indeed considering their service as scam because of they lied to the customer about "no ID verification is required" and I am not going to accept any fact of them modifying their ToS in a "right way".

Total loss: 578.15 EUR

I hope this post will help those who seek anonymous debit cards to prevent any loses with this service in future.


[UPDATE 11/17/16]
THIS CASE HAS BEEN RESOLVED, THANKS CRYPTOPAY SUPPORT.
I CONFIRM I RECEIVED MY MONEY AND THE CARD HAS BEEN UNLOCKED

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[Fortify]

That is quite a chunk of cash to lose, sorry to hear about that and it will serve a good warning for others. Is there a particular reason you don't want to send in ID? You can always add some text/shapes so that your identification is not used elsewhere. Most legal exchangers are required by law to identify their users to prevent money laundering so it is hard to stay anonymous, even with bitcoin. Am I reading it right, any transactions of 500 Euro are required to present ID and you've got 578 Euro with them?

[acroman08]

Well. They're saying it's some additional restriction by the card issuer.

Did you try to use it to withdraw from PayPal? Or did you by any chance exceed the 2500 Euros limit?

Though I do think there should be a notice on their page about that PayPal restriction.
Rules should be clear and they do advertise a "no verification needed" option.

And now they cite the AML/KYC law with a "no such thing as anonymous" line. lol
It should be made clear right from the start.

[kotwica666]

I think there are some misunderstandings.

I think that Cryptopay support write "no such thing as anonymous" because to get plastic card you have to register, so you have to give them your name (card holder name) and address (to receive card). And this is enough to don't break AML/KYC law, but is not fully anonymous.

This clearly mean: "no verification needed" (you don't have to show your ID and other stuff)

Their mistake is to not let us - customers - know, that the new law does not allow withdraw from PayPal and online casinos.
(actually about casinos i knew, about PayPal no)

It should be explained and from what I understand, at this point Cryptopay is doing this.

[cryptopay_support]

Guys, we deeply regret any inconvenience or frustrations that our customers experience while trying to use our solutions and make every effort to provide advance notice or resolve these issues as soon as possible. I hope that you can understand that sometimes we face circumstances outside of our control. Even in these cases, we try to provide explanations clearly and quickly to those affected although we appreciate that when it comes to accessing your funds held on our card, every second that passes without a resolution is frustrating.
As you should know, we do issue our cards through Wave Crest Holdings Limited and as the card issuer, they do have powers to suspend accounts and request a full set of verification documents.
We strongly recommend to use your «real» name whenever creating a card account, so you would be able to present documents in case they are requested by the card issuer. You don't need to worry about your personal data. As a British company, we take storing your personal info very seriously.
FYI, we have managed to convince our card issuer to unblock the topic starter's card as an exception and the user is able to withdraw the funds.
Also, we have updated the Helpdesk about the new rules on the 3rd party withdrawals https://support.cryptopay.me/hc/en-us/articles/203763725-Why-do-I-need-to-verify-my-account-. The info on the website will be updated tomorrow morning.

[kotwica666]

Guys, we deeply regret any inconvenience or frustrations that our customers experience while trying to use our solutions and make every effort to provide advance notice or resolve these issues as soon as possible. I hope that you can understand that sometimes we face circumstances outside of our control. Even in these cases, we try to provide explanations clearly and quickly to those affected although we appreciate that when it comes to accessing your funds held on our card, every second that passes without a resolution is frustrating.
As you should know, we do issue our cards through Wave Crest Holdings Limited and as the card issuer, they do have powers to suspend accounts and request a full set of verification documents.
We strongly recommend to use your «real» name whenever creating a card account, so you would be able to present documents in case they are requested by the card issuer. You don't need to worry about your personal data. As a British company, we take storing your personal info very seriously.
FYI, we have managed to convince our card issuer to unblock the topic starter's card as an exception and the user is able to withdraw the funds.
Also, we have updated the Helpdesk about the new rules on the 3rd party withdrawals https://support.cryptopay.me/hc/en-us/articles/203763725-Why-do-I-need-to-verify-my-account-. The info on the website will be updated tomorrow morning.

And it's called professional attitude to the situation!

And again, I can feel the happy owner of CryptoPay Bitcoin Debit Card!

Good job.


Imcompany - please confirm that everything is, ok and you can withdraw your funds.

Cheers!

[acroman08]

I think there are some misunderstandings.

I think that Cryptopay support write "no such thing as anonymous" because to get plastic card you have to register, so you have to give them your name (card holder name) and address (to receive card). And this is enough to don't break AML/KYC law, but is not fully anonymous.

This clearly mean: "no verification needed" (you don't have to show your ID and other stuff)

But see, exactly because there is no verification needed, then what's stopping people from writing a different name on their card account? Which seems to be the case with OP.
(And a lot of other users I'm sure.)

Guys, we deeply regret any inconvenience or frustrations that our customers experience while trying to use our solutions and make every effort to provide advance notice or resolve these issues as soon as possible. I hope that you can understand that sometimes we face circumstances outside of our control. Even in these cases, we try to provide explanations clearly and quickly to those affected although we appreciate that when it comes to accessing your funds held on our card, every second that passes without a resolution is frustrating.
As you should know, we do issue our cards through Wave Crest Holdings Limited and as the card issuer, they do have powers to suspend accounts and request a full set of verification documents.
We strongly recommend to use your «real» name whenever creating a card account, so you would be able to present documents in case they are requested by the card issuer. You don't need to worry about your personal data. As a British company, we take storing your personal info very seriously.
FYI, we have managed to convince our card issuer to unblock the topic starter's card as an exception and the user is able to withdraw the funds.
Also, we have updated the Helpdesk about the new rules on the 3rd party withdrawals https://support.cryptopay.me/hc/en-us/articles/203763725-Why-do-I-need-to-verify-my-account-. The info on the website will be updated tomorrow morning.

That's great then. I was wondering what would happen to the funds if he was unable to verify due to different "name" on card account.

And it's called professional attitude to the situation!

And again, I can feel the happy owner of CryptoPay Bitcoin Debit Card!

Good job.

And yes, I agree, that was really great response from support. ^^
That should be how Service is. I see so many horrible ones.

[lmcompany]

Thank you Cryptopay guys for resolving the issue, I am so happy to announce this case as resolved/closed.

In terms of anonymity and name on the card, I never give my real name on the debit card since anonymity means you don't disclose your data.


It would be great if you clarify "NO ID IS REQUIRED" on your site since there are some regulations, and also you should give us the link to pdf that contains full regulationos from your issuer.

Is there a particular reason you don't want to send in ID?

Lots of reasons, but main is human factor. It's very frequent case when some employees of trusted(still i don't believe in that term) companies turn into rats that sell customer IDs on black markets. Watermark on copies doesn't help to prevent the steal of info such as DOB and address.

Cheers.

[TunerDude007]

I agree that Cryptopay's support is second to none. And yes, as for disclosing Identification I simply give them anything.

[Zepher]

I agree that Cryptopay's support is second to none. And yes, as for disclosing Identification I simply give them anything.

That link is for cryptopay.win - not cryptopay.me. I did not click the link, but used Virus Total to scan it instead. Nothing unusual was detected.

That said, why have you linked a different url??..

[kotwica666]

I agree that Cryptopay's support is second to none. And yes, as for disclosing Identification I simply give them anything.

That link is for cryptopay.win - not cryptopay.me. I did not click the link, but used Virus Total to scan it instead. Nothing unusual was detected.

That said, why have you linked a different url??..

It is probably link to his referral link or something similar..
I have noticed that recently referral harvesters open their websites with forwarding to other website.. In this way they bypass ban of posting referral links on Bitcointalk.