PrePaid ATM NIGHTMARE

[Hnora]

PREPAID ATM CONFUSION

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can anyone tell me if they are familiar with this. We are researching some old withdrawls from a mess we thought was from our child back from 2004. He is autistic and very high functioning with the computer. We were contacted by a not so friendly individual back in 2004 threatning us, which I nicely told him he could go jump in a lake. Now after 2 years this company is contacting us again. No problem! They sold the company kept the software and the debt.Again, no problem. Their collection agency calls me, they can't tell me what its for, just that we owe PPATM a couple hundred dollars. So I call AR from PPATM directly. Actually I call the old number and get him (lol). Here's the situation. The credit card company did a chargeback on 2/7 charges. The 5 that went through are what I am writing about.

ME: Show me where this money went? All I want to know? What Casino?
AR:Ahhhh, Wellll, I think it went tooooo, let me look them up ...
ME: What?
AR:Well, it went to casino on the net or some other casino.
ME:Excuse me what does that mean? Some other casino, don't you know?

And this was the old President of the Company?

ME:So, ECASHWORLD-LIVE.COM received well over a 1000.00 dollars and you can't tell me who they are? And how can this be done with an MBNA Visa?
AR: Listen I can always prosecute your kid!
ME: Gee, OK! (well let me tell you my irish temper was flaring a bit)

Bad enough he threatens to send my autistic child to jail. What over a couple hundred dollars? (bad enough we lost 25,000.00) That should go over well with the newspapers! Gee, especially with his legal problems! And it was paid! This didn't come to my attention until the collection agency told me there were numerous errors and ip addresses. So, I start googling away and can't find anything. All i know is the CC company did chargeback on 2 that didn't have ECASHWORLD-LIVE.COM and now he wants me to pay him for those. Or my kids goes to prison (NOT). So, we do know it wasn't all our son. But alas my plight is this.

Can anyone tell me who ECASHWORLD-LIVE.COM is?

This is the very condensed version of our story. I hope someday I will share our whole experience with the forum and want to say upfront to Brian, Thank you for all your support so far! (Also, I realized I posted this one the wrong forum so bear with me I am new at this)

[spearmaster]

Ecashworld is Golden Palace or any of its associated casinos. But you said those were not charged back - so that would definitely not be who you are after.

MBNA did a wholesale chargeback of all gambling-related transactions in 2004 if I am not mistaken, along with some other banks like Capital One.

[suzecat]

Originally Posted by spearmaster

Ecashworld is Golden Palace or any of its associated casinos. But you said those were not charged back - so that would definitely not be who you are after.

MBNA did a wholesale chargeback of all gambling-related transactions in 2004 if I am not mistaken, along with some other banks like Capital One.

Yes Spear. At least here in the US, the courts have ruled that gambling debts are not enforceable debt.

A pertinent article appears here:
http://rose.casinocitytimes.com/articles/5938.html

[spearmaster]

Good find, Suzecat I am a Capital One cardholder, so technically I would have been affected as well, had I used my credit cards to fund deposits.

Gambling debts aren't enforceable in many countries, if not most. But that wasn't the justification used to chargeback the debts - these CC companies just went ahead and did it six months after the fact if I am not mistaken.

Providian, in particular, did it because they got burned by the Cynthia Haines case, where she sued to get her liability dropped because the transactions were "not legitimate" as far as I can recall. I guess MBNA and Capital One didn't want to get caught up in that so they pulled the trigger themselves, in the process relieving a bunch of players from their debts LOL. But Citibank and HSBC are huge banks and have always been very conservative.

[Hnora]

We just paid all the transaction since we assumed it was our son. Took the bullet per say! And it was a big bullet Though, it continued after we cancelled all the cards. That's what amazes me. Even our banks allowed purchases to go thru. We were informed they couldn't investigate due to the user being a "family member".

So, am I to understand the the CC company did across the board chargebacks? Am I liable to this Yahoo to pay him for these chargebacks? After reading numerous legal briefs and articles what responsibility does the US banks have to protect the debit cards with usage to internet gambling?

I am stunned at the articles of people who sue American Express and Discover when they knowingly used the cards to gamble and won! ONLY in America. When there are people like us who opened a casino account (rogue by the way) and within a day our lives went to .

Example: There were 8 ondemandfunds used at one casino. I spoke with them (ondemandfunds). The account was opened but never used. Though, on our bank statement thousands were taken out. Go figure? I believe we have every imaginable account out there. But, again we took responsibility and sadly we didn't know about this site until last month.

CC with wrong expiration dates blah blah blah. Owners who threaten us! ( ) Wrong Ip numbers, cancelled CC , I have to say this is like our on little soap opera. As the Wheel Spins

[spearmaster]

Yes - the CC company did the chargebacks, without consulting with the cardholders, and it appears that you were one of those cardholders.

Now you can simply tell AR that the bank did the chargeback without your permission, and that he should take them to court if he wishes to obtain the funds. Furthermore, as you did not make the chargeback yourself, you cannot be held liable for the actions of others.

Then tell the collection agency that if they attempt to contact you one more time you will immediately file a complaint with the credit agencies (Experian, Equifax, Trans Union), and furthermore you may consider seeking action for harrassment.

However, I must also point out that your problem does not seem to be limited to credit cards, as evidenced by the ondemandfunds. You need to investigate further to find out what is causing this, perhaps going so far as to load a Net Nanny-type software to prevent access to those sites from your computer(s).

If indeed it is not anyone in your family - then you are the subject of identity fraud - and you will need to consider changing all of your financial accounts.

But if it is your son - you may have little recourse. So investigate thoroughly to make sure what the likely causes are.

Best of luck!

[Hnora]

We cancelled all accounts including all our financial institutions. We knew something wasn't right when it kept happening. We also learned a huge lesson thru all of this. Actually we are still in the learning process.

One thing I do want to say I am amazed at the pm's of people that have been contacted by this company with the same situation. Though concerned at coming out publicly. If this person threatens or instills tactics that are NOT legal then YOU need to speak up! We can't allow this type harrassment into our homes. Research, Ask questions. Brian is an Advocate! I wish I had known he was here 2 years ago. It would have most likely saved my situation.

[AcciaioIT]

If you want advises on how to deal with a collection agency I suggest you read through and/or ask on this board

http://boards.fool.com/Messages.asp?bid=100145

You can find a lot of cases about collection agency or you can ask questions directly and you will find a lot of people willing to help you

Good Luck