StormPay
StormPay is an online payment service run by Stormpay Incorporated, a Clarksville, Tennessee, United States company founded in October 2002. It allows anyone with an e-mail address to send or receive payments after opening an online account. All accounts can be used for any purpose within the Terms of Service.
Funding Account
The currency used in accounts is United States Dollars. A StormPay user/customer can fund their account with a credit card, online check, or Money Orders; or by clicking on sponsored links, purchased by StormPay members themselves, in the StormClix section of the StormPay website.
Fees
While opening a StormPay account is free, StormPay will charge a 3% processing fee on credit card funding. It is also free to send money to another e-mail address. However, a fee is incurred when receiving funds - this is 6.9% of the amount being received and an additional 69 cents, deducted from the amount being received. These fees can be reduced, for US$19.95 a year, by becoming NetIBA certified, to 2.9% and 39 cents.
NetIBA is claimed to be a third-party identity verification service. It is also located in Clarksville, Tennessee. The NetIBA certification process purportedly includes the sending of a PIN by telephone and a PIN by mail, however, users have also reported that the phone step is occasionally skipped. After being certified, webmasters may place an image on their website to display this fact to potential customers.
Withdrawing Money
StormPay allows users to withdraw money via a debit card, or the mailing of a personal check. There are no fees charged for these services. It is unknown whether the debit card is usable outisde of North America. However, the check is in United States Dollars, and costs $20 to be sent by courier, $35 internationally. These fees, and the additional cost of exchanging fees from a USD check in other countries, make it not profitable to withdraw by international check unless one's account balance is very high.
Other
StormPay allows the account of a seller to be charged back if the buyer claims non-receipt of the goods sold. However, this does not apply to services, as in the Terms of Service. The fee for a chargeback is $35, and, as documented on Money Maker Group Forum, this may cause a negative balance to appear in one's StormPay account. The balance may be restored automatically by StormPay by deducting the necessary funds from one's attached bank account. If one then attempts to charge back StormPay from the bank, StormPay will immediately freeze the account and alter the balance to -$10,000. Excessive complaints by users will also cause an account to be frozen, which prevents the owner from sending or receiving money, but does permit the refunding of money, if available, to previous payers.
Other services provided by StormPay include auctions, racing, commissions for referring new members, and an ISP service.
Recent
On August 17, 2005, a lawsuit was filed against StormPay. See external links.
StormPay is commonly used by Autosurfing websites, Paid To Read sites and HYIPs. On January 31, 2006, StormPay declared that it would not allow itself to be used on any site which also offered another payment solution, such as Paypal or e-gold. The justification of this move was to prevent the transfer of funds between payment processors, which would increase the likelihood and untraceability of fraudulent money. However, this move was also seen by some as the first step in establishing a monopoly over its niche market.
As a result, many autosurf websites have elected to remove other payment options, while others have elected to remove StormPay.
As of February 2nd, 2006, StormPay has been suspending/cancelling numerous StormPay accounts for admins of Autosurf sites without any formal announcements from StormPay admins.
Users have submitted emails questioning what the issue might be, with (what appears to be) a pre-generated response:
"Unfortunately, we are unable to process any further transactions on behalf of the merchant. StormPay Inc. certainly understands your concerns regarding this situation. However, the funds of this merchant were frozen by an outside organization pending further investigation. To protect the integrity of the investigation we are unable to release any details at this time. Once the funds are released, StormPay will release the funds to claimant(s) for disbursement."
With StormPay going in the dark no one can be certain what has transpired. No one has the answers, nor will anyone know until official announcements are released.
External Links
Stormpay- "The safe way to buy... ...the easy way to sell."
A step by step guide to Autosurfing and earning money on the Internet
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