R4I | FinTelegram News

Category: R4I

April 30, 2021

R4I – Secretive scam-facilitating payment processor Paystruct

In recent weeks, Paystruct (www.paystruct.com) has appeared more and more frequently as a payment processor in our analysis of scam brokers. Like many of the high-risk payment processors, Paystruct discloses very little information on its website. There is no indication of the legal entity and individuals behind it. Contact can be made by email or phone with a number in London. Also, there is no additional information on the merchant dashboard except that Paystruct is supposed to be the world's best closed-loop token payment system with payouts under 24 hours.

April 22, 2021

R4I – Scam-facilitating licensed Estonian crypto payment processor PayTechno

We already know Igor Torsin. Don't we? The 62-year old Estonian lawyer works for Estonian company builder Eesti Firma OÜ and is a director at nine FIU-licensed Estonian crypto companies (read this report). Among them is PayTechno OÜ, supervised by the FIU with license number FVT000151. The company was registered in May 2018 and operates two domains www.cryptopaytech.com and www.paytechno.com. The latter is one of the worst scam-facilitators as a crypto payment processor. We would like to know more.

April 3, 2021

R4I – Illegal Italian Payment Processor Elmo Color with ePayComfort

We have recently brought a report on the so-called TradeCabinet scams. Boiler rooms in the Balkans operate this scam network. This includes 3 FID Tech (3fidtech) in Tirana as well as Global-Tech and Comunico88 in Belgrade. The TradeCabinet CRM software is apparently used for the back-office processes of the attached scam brands. Processing deposits from customer victims is part of these back-office processes. We found the Italian digital marketing firm Elmo Color S.R.L.S. as an illegal payment processor in combination with ePayComfort. We would like to know more about these payment processors.

March 28, 2021

Regulated Lithuanian scam-facilitator Epayblock lost two top managers

We brought a Request 4 Information (R4I) regarding Epayblock a few days ago because we want to know more about the e-Money institution regulated by the Bank of Lithuania with authorization code LB001911. The reason for this R4I was that illegal Lithuanian payment providers such as Skylas, Merelita, or Ristema are involved in currently active broker scams. These companies launder money through their bank accounts at Epayblock. Upon our R4I, we received the information that two top managers had already left the company several months ago.

March 26, 2021

R4I – Epayblock, illegal payment processor clients, and money-laundering

Amid the hype of binary options, CFDs, and crypto trading, many FinTech entrepreneurs have picked up e-Money Institution licenses in Lithuania. Like Eyal Nachum with his Bruc Bond and International Fintech. Well, they lost the license and went to Singapore. However, MoneyNetint Group and its GlobalNetInt are still there; regulated! Most recently, Epayblock caught our attention because it is repeatedly involved in broker scams as a payment processor. We would like to know more about Epayblock.

March 14, 2021

R4I – The Latvian Racket, Estonian crypto payment processors MisterBit, Isunext, and Praxis Cashier

We ask for the support of our whistleblowers to supplement the information we have and to be able to create complete profiles from it. In the last few days, we have discovered two scams, Zurich Invests (here) and XFinances (here), where the Cypriot Praxis Cashier of Amit Klatchko, together with MisterBit of Cristiano Chiarugi, licensed in Estonia as a crypto payment processor, acted as payment facilitators. Also, we have received information suggesting a connection between MisterBit and Estonian Isunext.

February 18, 2021

R4I – The secretive Ukrainian Paythrone focused on complex merchants

The website of the high-risk payment processor Paythrone looks acceptable. Not exactly majestic as the name might suggest, but nice. Other than that, you won't find much on the website. Neither is it stated (or we didn't find it) which legal entities and persons operate the payment facilitator or under which jurisdiction it operates. We have found the payment processor focused on "complex merchants" most recently in the two broker scams Spintop Capital and Optimus Markets. However, we would love to learn more about the mysterious provider.

February 18, 2021

R4I – Estonian crypto payment processor Itez and Databridge

We have already discovered the high-risk payment processor Itez (www.itez.com) in several scams as a facilitator. For example, FXOptex, Optimus Markets, and Spintop Capital have integrated Itez as a payment processor. Itez is operated by DataBridge OÜ, which is licensed in Estonia by the relevant FIU. Maria Neverdinova-Rostovtseva is installed there as Nominee Director (Monkey). Currently, we do not know the beneficial owners of DataBridge. We would like to know more about the payment processor.

February 7, 2021

R4I – Broker scam 27ProQuote closed down but Maltese ApcoPay still there

Many retail investors have lost money via the broker scam 27ProQuote. The attackers behind it are apparently in the process of closing the scam. Currently, the server of 27ProQuote is no longer accessible. We have reports of victims who have lost over €100,000 in some cases. The Maltese ApcoPay operated by Apco Systems Ltd registered in Malta processed the payments. We would like to know more about ApcoPay to expose the scammers and find the victims' funds.

February 5, 2021

R4I – Coriunder, the Israeli-Cyprus Lord of the gateways

The backbone of cybercrime and scams is payment processors accepting the operators of illegal and/or fraudulent business models as merchants. And process the illegal money flows. Without them knowingly and willingly facilitating scams, they wouldn't be possible in the first place. Many scam-facilitating payment processors and gateways are actually powered by Coriunder, an Israeli payment gateway operator based in Cyprus. This configuration of regulated PSPs and API-connecting unregulated PayTechs has become standard and is a good way to hide.

January 25, 2021

R4I – Cartu Brothers, the GMM binary options fraud, AEGIS Labs, and Kav Sheroot Tech

The Cartu Brothers - David, Jonathan, and Joshua - are very sought after people. They are currently being sued by the U.S. CFTC and Canada's OSC for alleged binary options fraud. The CFTC claims that at least $165M has been stolen from retail investors. The CFTC did not even include all of the Cartu Brothers‘ brands in the complaint. Therefore, it is likely that a multiple of this amount was processed through their GreyMountain Management scheme and other entities. We would like to learn more about AEGIS Labs, Sandbox Media, and Kav Sheroot Tech.

January 7, 2021

R4I – Estonian Crypto Payment Processor Bitxtech

BitxTech is a crypto payment processor and exchange operated by CryptoFactury OÜ, registered and licensed in Estonia. Israeli Or Bar, born in September 1987, is registered as the director. BitxTech has increasingly come to the attention of broker scams in recent months as a supporting payment processor. It is also interesting to note that BitxTech and XchangePro use the same application and identical onboarding processes. They appear to be clones or white label solutions.