Merchant Account Underwriting Tools

Monthly Archives: January 2016

ANOTHER MERCHANT PROCESSOR CHARGED

ANOTHER MERCHANT PROCESSOR CHARGED

HOW MANY TIMES WE GOTTA TELL YA??

After following the lead of one of those fraudsters “Who didn’t Go Away” Ryan Hult, Vixious Merchant Services LLC and Keybancard LLC and their owner, David Vankkomen allegedly adopted Hult’s twice sanctioned schemes, Tax Club and PayBasics, thinking that three tries would be lucky. It wasn’t. In January 2013 the FTC had closed down a group of entities and their principals doing business as, among other entities, The Tax Club, for engaging in deceptive telemarketing practices in connection with the sale of purported small business development products and services. That same month, Hult formed TSM. Hult is a former Tax Club employee, as were several of the telemarketers who worked for the RBC Entities.

It’s becoming very apparent that processing for fraud merchants may well put the processor in the same government stew as their clients.stew pot When caught laundering transaction the stew gets even hotter. Cases that may be initially FTC or CFPB sanctions may be referred for criminal prosecution.

See http://acquirerrisk.com/payment-processing-operation-sued-for-credit-card-laundering/ and http://acquirerrisk.com/merchant-account-processors-banned/

In the matter at hand,http://acquirerrisk.com/ftc-vs-top-shelf-marketing/, one can read the details, which include the following:

133. The Vixous Payments Defendants provided substantial assistance or support to sellers and telemarketers that the Vixous Payments Defendants knew, or consciously avoided knowing, were engaged in acts or practices that violate Section 310.3(c) of the TSR, as described in Paragraphs 79-104 above.
134. The Vixous Payments Defendants’ acts or practices alleged inParagraph 133 constitute deceptive telemarketing acts or practices in violation of the TSR, 16 C.F.R. § 310.3(b).

  1. Most of the RBC Defendants’s laundered sales were processed through merchant accounts opened with Secure Bancard, LLC (“Secure Bancard”),bad idea  a registered ISO of the merchant acquiring bank, Synovus

FTC vs Top Shelf Marketing

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, Plaintiff, v. TOP SHELF MARKETING CORP., a New Jersey corporation, RELIABLE BUSINESS CONSULTANTS, LLC, also doing business as ONLINE COMMERCE PROS, a New York limited liability company, · CREATIVE BUSINESS SETUP, LLC, a Utah limited liability company, LEGAL ENTITY PROVIDERS, LLC, a UtahRead More

PAYMENT PROCESSING OPERATION SUED FOR CREDIT CARD LAUNDERING

Someone must have thought this was a good idea at some point. According to allegations in the new FTC filing CardReady LLC, an independent sales organization, and its executives, Brandon A. Becker, James F. Berland and Andrew S. Padnick, arranged for at least 26 shell merchant accounts to be used to process credit card paymentsRead More

Perhaps A Bit Presumptive?

Steven McKinlay, and Kristi McKinlay, owners of God’s Sports Company, have been charged with a dozen felonies, including using untrue statements in the purchase or sale of a security, grand theft and the use of a device in a scheme to defraud, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Authorities say they bilked investors,Read More