21/01/2015. HYIP Industry after the EgoPay Scam: Discussion on Remaining Payment Options and Daily News from the HYIP Industry

Hello everyone! Following the recent unexpected collapse of one of the biggest anonymous payment processors EgoPay (read more on that in this article) I’d like to have what I think will be an interesting discussion on the future of the HYIP industry, and specifically the payment processors that make up such a crucial cornerstone of it. So, is it all just doom and gloom in the industry right now or is there anything to be positive about for the future? Well, in my honest opinion, it’s a little bit from column “A” and a little bit from column “B” as I’ll try to explain in the following article before we move on to the regular news.

Let’s start with the basics and delve into some recent history to better understand the current situation.

May, 2013. A major crash in the HYIP industry and a near total overhaul was caused by the US Federal authorities raid on LibertyReserve (the major payment processor gateway serviced HYIPs at the time) and its major exchangers, seizing the funds and closing the websites while putting a lot of pressure on the remaining anonymous payment processors like PerfectMoney and EgoPay to force them to cease providing services for US residents. The long arm of the law put the owners of LibertyReserve in jail following extradition from their own jurisdictions where they lived like kings, convicting them of money laundering, living off the proceeds of crime, and financing criminal gangs involved in such despicable businesses like drug trafficking and child pornography. Remember it wasn’t just online HYIPs that were using LibertyReserve to move money around, but it was probably the biggest blow for the industry from which it has not fully recovered yet.

January, 2015. Fast forward to a year that could have been a time for getting investors more active, but started instead on a sour note with the above-mentioned EgoPay collapsing. Unlike LibertyReserve however, there was no police raids. In the official version everyone can finally find in their accounts (along with the lost value of their now useless EgoPay balance) they blame hackers, and promise to return to normal soon. Here is the latest report from their side:
“Please accept our sincerest apologies in the lack of communication and transparency. This is what has happened since end of the year (Dec 2014):
– there was a hack and that is why all the merchant related services were turned off. This happened at a time when we had a lack of personnel between Christmas and New Year
– there is talks with an outside investor who is doing due diligence.
Tickets slowed down since there were no more employees to handle it, however this is getting resolved as a new team is being assembled to handle this. The services are coming back online already along with any exploits already cut off. Please stay tuned for more news after this weekend.”

Now, the question remains – will anyone in their right mind believe this? The administration deliberately kept everyone in the dark while this was allegedly going on, and then scammed exchangers. According to their own report one large exchanger/ payment processor Payeer has lost about $200K, “frozen” by EgoPay. Well, I myself would prefer not to deal with them again, and I have a strong suspicion that the so-called “new team” they speak of will not be that new at all. It’s always the same people of course, but maybe they’re thinking of an attempt to revive EgoPay along the same lines as StrictPay tried a few years back when they got into trouble but failed miserably. You can refresh your memory and read the article published back in July 2010, when the new version of StrictPay was launched : http://money-news-online.com/blog/2010/07/14/14072010-strictpay-update-and-other-news/

Will EgoPay try to pull the same stunt? We’ll find out soon enough, so just make sure to keep reading MNO if you want to stay informed of any further developments in this story.
For now it’s better to consider EgoPay finished. Nothing can fix the tainted reputation of the administration because they were deliberately silent on the issue for so long, allowing people to fund their EgoPay accounts while knowing they would never be able to get that money back. Now when everything is plain and simple about their intentions they try to stall and steal more money, or simply get more funds before the eventual closure and re-launch or re-brand with little to no hope for previous customers. I don’t think they’ll succeed with this and won’t resume normal operations even if they genuinely wanted to. You can never step into the same river twice, as an old saying goes, so it’s time to move on, look to the future and analyze the remaining payment processors that might be useful for HYIP players, but not for HYIP admins. This article is written with the best interests of investors in mind, not those of HYIP admins.

So we’ll start with PerfectMoney, which is by far the largest at the moment and generally accepted by almost every HYIP. The reason for that is simple – PerfectMoney is very easy to use, the payments are totally irreversible, there are plenty of exchangers serving as third parties for those looking to fund their PM account, withdraw money from it, or simply exchange to different currencies. The fees are also very competitive which are 0.5% for sending payments to other PM account holders from verified and premium accounts, and 1.99% from the amount of sending a payment from unverified accounts. Remember that the verification in PerfectMoney is not compulsory, but it is encouraged by them even if it is possibly just a formality to satisfy any authorities looking over their shoulder. Direct bank wire and BitCoin options are also available for deposits and withdrawals, while the accounts themselves can be held in USD, EUR, Gold Troy Oz, and even BTC. If your activities online require high anonymity level PerfectMoney is perhaps the best choice for you, as, unlike BitCoin, you always know the real value of your funds and are safe from any chargebacks. This, however, will also be the main weakness of PerfectMoney for some members who require a more personal approach to handling complaints against merchants that can scam them, likewise some HYIPs. Also, being justifiably afraid of the US authorities who took a very hard stance against the owners of LibertyReserve, PerfectMoney has done everything possible to avoid sharing the same fate and so excluded US customers completely from using their services. That was done for a reason as nobody actually knows anything about the PerfectMoney owners, the internal workings of the company, or its location. So you simply can’t exclude the possibility of a scam when the owners feel the time is right (for whatever reason) for them to leave. That’s exactly what happened to EgoPay which has in turn fueled the fears that same thing can happen to PerfectMoney. We’ve seen several precedents already over the last couple of years, and the thing is that the victims can never see it coming until it’s too late.

I can’t help but add a few words about SolidTrustPay. They were once the main competitor for LibertyReserve and appreciated by many investors for its ability to reverse payments from HYIPs and a much tougher stance against fraud. It was widely known that HYIP admins continued to pay investors who made deposits via SolidTrustPay for a much longer time after stopping payments to other processors due to fear of the inevitable STP account suspension and losing the money they couldn’t withdraw themselves. Nowadays though it became simply impossible for HYIP admins to verify their accounts with SolidTrustPay and without approval of their payment buttons it’s forbidden to collect money via STP. I can speculate that SolidTrustPay also saw what happened to LibertyReserve, and as STP is a legal payment processor headquartered in Canada with the real people in charge and even phone support available, they decided taking a much harder stance on HYIPs was preferable to the police turning up and putting the jobs of people who themselves did nothing wrong at risk. Currently STP only seem to accept the very few programs that, unlike HYIPs with their unproven Forex and stock nonsense, can actually prove that they have another income from selling advertising, or offer some paid-to-click exchange as a viable business model. Still, even now SolidTrustPay has kept its very loyal followers due to its anti fraud policy and convenient card and bank deposits and withdrawals. But as far as the HYIP industry is concerned I believe the days when STP were at their peak are behind us now. They’re simply not interested in that side of the business anymore.

The most amazing return to the HYIP stage recently was made by Payza – once an almost extinct payment processor returned to the industry a few months ago, having previously withdrawn from it completely shortly after taking control of AlertPay. Nobody expected that for sure, but it appears Payza’s administration managed to get through all the legal formalities and strike a deal with the US authorities (possibly with the help of their lawyers, who knows?). What’s more, they’ve returned with lots of interesting features and now allow high-yield investment programs to be accepted. From the investors’ point of view Payza is now probably the best payment processors in terms of legality (like STP, Payza is also officially headquartered in Canada) and the ability to offer lots of features to its verified account holders. Note that if you’re a criminal trying to hide behind proxies, Payza might not be a convenient tool for you, as unlike PerfectMoney, only the proper verification of your account will give you all the advantages and unlock the numerous benefits. Yes, verification is a must and the fees for receiving payments are quite high 2.5% + $0.25 per transaction. But look what you get in return for that! A multitude of deposit and withdrawal options via Bank wire, Bank transfer, Credit Card, and Bitcoin – and all of that for very reasonable fees which will be much less than what you would have to pay to exchangers who are now no longer necessary. Plus, you can always use the internal exchange system if you require a different currency. I guess for US investors for whom Payza should definitely be the processor of choice. Certainly they’re the most convenient option as the relatively high fees are offset by the fact that there’s no need to even approach an exchanger to move money around. In addition to that, you can theoretically get your money back from the scams as a merchant dispute can be filed within a reasonable time after the transaction in question was made, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for that as entirely positive results are quite rare. But at the same time it does put some pressure on HYIP admins to avoid dealing with unsatisfied customers and make them perform better. Maybe on the downside for HYIP admins is the verification of a business account needed to accept payments via Payza won’t be so easy, but, like with listing on MNO, I firmly believe very soon Payza will be seen as a mark of quality that all serious admins should provide if they want their programs to become really successful (the same as once experienced with STP). It’s no wonder to me that after the departure of EgoPay so many HYIP admins started turning to Payza with some of the smarter ones already having accounts there. And surely, with more than two thirds of my readers thinking that Payza can successfully compete with the other payment processors serving the HYIP market then a bright future for them is already on the horizon.
To conclude on Payza – if you have nothing to hide, are open about your identity and are fully compliant with the law, then there’s nothing to stop you from opening an account in Payza, getting it verified, and using it to make money from HYIPs. I’m sure more and more experienced admins will follow suit, once they recognize the enormous potential the HYIP market holds for the wealthier American and European investors looking to join with much bigger amounts. In fact I wouldn’t be too daring if I suggested the whole revival of the HYIP industry may depend on the bigger role that the payment processors requiring verification would play in it.

Then we have BitCoin which was once considered by many experienced investors a total replacement for LibertyReserve. BitCoin as you know is a totally decentralized crypto-currency for the new generation and has only value as long as it has supply and demand. The main advantages of BitCoin include full and total anonymity while its simply impossible to close it down either, as it has no central authority behind it and is a quite a complicated entity with its own rules and regulations. Over the last year or so BitCoin has actually grown into a worldwide phenomena and has even become a major concern for some financial institutions unsatisfied with their total lack of control over its value and acceptance. Lately though such fame was not really beneficial for all the BitCoin wallet holders as the unnecessary attention made many governments put some restrictions on the free exchange of BitCoins into real cash and its free trading on the market which resulted in sites being blocked in some jurisdictions. That in turn led to a very dramatic drop in the value of BitCoin and no immediate prospects for future growth. Just consider this for a moment – right now BitCoin is trading at about $200 per 1 BTC when just a year ago you could easily sell your BitCoins for $1,000 and higher, making the recent history of BitCoin look like one big inflated bubble. As the crypto-currency rapidly lost its value over the last 12 months five (!) times, that disappointed a lot of investors who were totally disillusioned on seeing the value of their investments plummeting. Even if the luckiest BitCoin investor in the world quadrupled their BitCoin over the last 12 months, the real money you would get back in hard currency like the US Dollars still lose a massive percentage in real value. So, tell me now what is the point of investing via BitCoins when its value is declining? Let’s say you invest $100 worth of BTC in a successful HYIP that returns 120% on your investment. You now take your 120% and turn it back into dollars, except instead of getting $120 you only get $80, and this is despite the HYIP paying you in full. That’s just ridiculous. The most laughable question of all is why on earth would you invest your BitCoins which you purchased for real USD in HYIPs, if you genuinely expect the value to grow? Wouldn’t it be wiser to simply keep your funds in BitCoin and wait for its dollar value to rise again in value, then sell it like a real successful trader would instead of gambling it on HYIPs where you could lose everything? I imagine smarter investors will understand what I’m trying to say here, and why investing in HYIPs via BitCoin might not be as good an idea as some would try and tell you.

Finally, we have one more (major) payment processor which in many ways is the most strange to me and even more interesting to discuss than BitCoin. Payeer has been quite a popular option among investors (especially of Russian origin as it’s based in Russia) and is accepted by the vast majority of HYIPs due to its anonymity and irreversible transactions. The receiving fees are also at a very reasonable level of 0.95% which can easily compete with PerfectMoney, provided we understand that Payeer is, and was originally better known as, an e-currency exchanger in itself. Yes, you heard it right – you can actually exchange your Payeer funds within the member’s area for sometimes very reasonable fees. With this definitely interesting peculiarity useful for the HYIP investors having to convert constantly from one currency to another comes another weakness though. Being such a large exchanger means Payeer can be easily affected by a scam in other payment systems whose funds it holds in its vaults. For instance, recently on the Russian-speaking MMGP forum in the already infamous EgoPay thread it was officially reported by a Payeer representative that they had lost about $200,000 in EgoPay in frozen funds. As the chances to get this huge money back become slimmer with every passing day with EgoPay already reported on many investment-related forums and blogs, the future of Payeer as a currency remains questionable. And we will see in the near future if Payeer is actually a strong competitor of PerfectMoney that would be able to sustain such a huge blow, or will its owners decide to cover personal losses now at the expense of their own customers funds. For the moment I believe it’s not really advisable to keep big amounts of money in Payeer until will see what the future holds for them.

However, the same advice not to keep all your eggs in one basket can be easily applied to any payment processor. For your own peace of mind and security I’m pleading with you to diversify your funds between the payment processors when you’re investing in HYIPs, and only keep the bare minimum amounts you need there for your day-to-day activities. As we saw with the latest example in EgoPay anything can happen. There are no such a thing as an ideal payment processor as you should decide what’s the most convenient for you personally. I often get asked but you know it’s really hard to advise on the subject, as it depends on your own personal preferences, the country you live in, desired deposit and withdrawal methods, the level of anonymity you need to maintain, fees you’re prepared to pay for certain services, what exactly do you really need payment processors for in the first place, and so on.

So I’ve tried my best to give you my honest opinion of all the biggest payment processors serving the HYIP industry right now, and show what I think are the advantages and disadvantages of each. Hope that you found it interesting to read as I will update when and if the situation changes significantly, which I hope won’t happen for a long time as we’ve already had enough scams and closures and the industry really needs a break and some stability for some time to recover. And although trust in payment processors has been really undermined lately, the chance of big profits will always bring people back to investing and the thrill of the game will always prevail. The HYIP world has always had its ups and downs but no single program, service provider, blog, monitor, forum, or payment processor is so big that it’s greater than the industry itself or is in any way irreplaceable. Ultimately investors will always realize what’s really best for them anyway without any “experts” (either real or self-appointed) having to tell them.

DAILY NEWS FROM THE HYIP INDUSTRY

COINASSETS – EGOPAY ISSUES LEFT NO OTHER CHOICE

It looks like the admin of CoinAssets has totally given up on any positive outcome from EgoPay and has officially withdrawn his private offer of exchanges from PerfctMoney to EgoPay that was given a few days ago. And I believe it was absolutely the right thing to do – why a program would want to deal with a scam payment processor the funds of which have lost all value is just beyond my understanding. Anyway, all the withdrawals to EgoPay investors in CoinAssets have been suspended too, and the deposits cannot be made either, although it’s more likely to do with the technical issues of the payment processor itself than with any other reasons the admin should take into closer inspection, in my honest opinion. Anyway, exactly what to do with EgoPay deposits and withdrawals is totally the admin’s business, meanwhile investors in CoinAssets have been enjoying flawless payouts every day for six incredible weeks already. There’s no sign of any slow-down as the program definitely keeps growing stronger every day with more investors joining the 4%-6% for 90 days plan starting at a $20 minimum via PerfectMoney, Payeer, or BitCoin options. The program has reached the #2 spot on the MNO monitor today with every chance of hitting the top spot if it continues like this within the next couple of weeks. More on CoinAssets can be found in the detailed review of the program posted on the MNO blog here and for the latest update from the admin please read below:

“Egopay Platform Issues
Currently, Egopay.com is returning server errors for any sort of sending or receiving any transfers internally. At this moment we cannot process any Egopay withdrawals until a time that their system may be operational for sending transfers. Our exchange program of Egopay to Perfectmoney is also no longer operational until we can receive and send funds within Egopay.
CoinAssets“.

SOLCAPITAL – MNO REVIEW ANNOUNCED, MORE SUGGESTIONS NEEDED TO IMPROVE

In the latest newsletter from the admin of SolCapital he shared a link to the recent published review of his program on the MNO blog (click here to read). The main subject of the newsletter was his desire to improve his program’s performance while being open to members’ suggestions which he will try to implement if any good. I would make one suggestion to him myself which is to add Payza as the fourth payment processor. EgoPay was just dropped for obvious reasons so he needs a replacement. Plans include 8%-10% for 15 business days and 140%-180% after 15 business days for a minimum of $10 invested in either one. However in previous emails the admin already indicated that he had every intention to add Payza which will definitely attract lots of larger investors from the US, so I will be looking forward to seeing that happen and will definitely keep you updated on the MNO blog. If you have any other suggestions to improve SolCapital which has been paying for nine days with the first investors expected to reach the profit zone in a week from now do not hesitate to contact the admin at the special email address shown in the newsletter. And finally, remember to apply for a position of SolCapital‘s official representative to promote this promising program in your local area to earn a more favorable rate of referral commissions for your efforts. The full newsletter from SolCapital is included below:

“SolCapital: MNO Review and Constant Improvements!
Hello dear customers,
We have major news for you.
We have been reviewed by industry veteran Paul Abramson, so click here to read it.
We have more good news coming your way too. The SolCapital team are constantly looking for improvements in every area to better our performance all around, and after a casual team meeting we decided to listen to our customers’ opinions. What better way to find where we can improve our services than by asking our customers for their opinion? If you do have an opinion about what we should do differently, better, or you simply want to submit an opinion about our company, please email us at feedback@solcapital.biz. We will be delighted to hear what you have to say.
Remember, if you are willing to earn more then be sure to join our Regional Representative program, in which you will be awarded with twice as much affiliate commission – that’s 10%. Use this opportunity just to invite your friends to invest and you will be awarded. What’s better is that we are preparing for massive bonus campaigns where you will be able to earn even more with us, so stay tuned.
Best Regards, SolCapital Ltd“.

GHASH AND LOANTRUST – PROBLEMATIC FOR DIFFERENT REASONS! DO NOT INVEST!

Sadly the EgoPay collapse was perhaps one of the reasons why a couple of programs have stopped paying today and were moved to Problem status on the MNO monitor. They’re GHash and LoanTrust, so no further investments are recommended in either. Of course this was an indirect reason that led to those scams, but in fact the situation with both is totally different and smart investors managed to earn some good money from them.

LoanTrust is actually still processing instant withdrawals to its members, but do not be fooled by this. Deposits are not getting returned as before and one of the major advantages of the program which promised the opportunity to get principal back at any time is totally lost. Nevertheless, seven weeks online for LoanTrust that paid 2% daily forever as the most popular plan for investors was a remarkably good result considering the program was launched in December, never a fruitful month for HYIP admins. I believe that many people benefitted from the program’s lucrative plans and praised the admin for his work, but now it’s time to say good-bye. And a very important notice to all the investors of LoanTrust – please do NOT try to attempt to withdraw your principal from the program. It will only go to pending status and wont be paid, but will stop you from collecting the daily earnings which are still processed instantly as usual for the moment. The principal withdrawal issues though indicate that the end is near.

As for GHash, the program lasted for 70 days while being exclusively monitored on MNO and only accepted BitCoin, allowing a few members to double their money from its long-term plan. Only after that GHash made some unnecessary and widely criticized changes that did absolutely nothing to improve the program. Quite the contrary in fact, it looked a lot more like a downgrade than anything else. Returning to a regular GoldCoders script from a customized one, and introducing new but utterly unremarkable plans, i.e. losing its originality and becoming like thousands of similar programs online. Thus, GHash managed to work for about four weeks in the new format, yet failing to get much attention from investors, as the admin was clearly a newbie not knowing what he’s doing. At least, I had a very strong impression of that when he contacted me privately a few days ago asking why GHash was not that popular. He received an honest reply from me which he didn’t like, but instead of analyzing his own mistakes and trying to improve the program, he wrote back to say he couldn’t even be bothered to read my suggestions. He’s now preferred to surrender and close up shop. Note that at the moment all previously instant withdrawals went to pending status and the admin is not replying to emails. Do not invest in GHash until further notice as it’s a strongly suspected scam!

GET PAID REPORT FOR 21/01/2015

Here is the list of the programs from my monitor that paid me for the last 48 hours:
From MNO Sticky list: –
From MNO Premium list: AssuredAssets, CoinAssets, CryptoFarm, BITC1, MajesticSwan, Silveks, BTPerfex, CryptoStrategy, AtrexTrade, SolCapital, Rockfeller, RollNRich.
From MNO Standard list: HashCoin.
From MNO Basic list: PhenixPro, OgdenOrganization, RoxInvest.

That’s all the news for today, guys. I hope you enjoyed the analysis and while I have other ideas in mind to share with you soon, please take the time to share your own personal views with me and vote in the polls presented on the MNO TalkBack page about the EgoPay scam and Payza’s ability to replace it as the fourth big payment processor for the needs of the HYIP industry. Thanks for reading, and see you all here again soon!