I made a MoneyBookers account recently, I was happy as hell, because I could recieve money from all over the world, even from the jungle (joking). The service is pretty ok, and pretty fast, you can not pay in many places, but it is used in the USA mostly to pay for On-line Poker accounts, since many accept that.
So as I was saying, I was all happy, until 2 weeks ago, I received an e-mail from them that my account is locked, because they need to verify my identity, and I should send them a copy of my passport. All was OK, I said, that is fair, so I faxed it, black and white, and in 2 days my account was unlocked.
After using it a bit, I received some money from a friend, about $300, and I cashed it at my bank I was surprised to see that my account got locked again, asking me to provide my passport copy again.
I immediately e-mailed them asking if I need to “verify” each month, because I sent the copy of my passport just two weeks before. They have replied that “the copy I have sent is not of good quality” and they need from me another piece of identification like a copy of my drivers license. I will send that today or tomorrow by fax, but I wonder, what if that is not of good quality either? I am running out of identification documents!
Part Two: A friend of mine, is a freelance web designer, he is not from the United States, so basically he needed to use MoneyBookers to receive his money. After he opened an account, and received money from 5 customers of his, his account got locked also, and he was told to provide proper identification.
After doing so, surprise! He got an e-mail back saying that all the people that sent him money need to send proper identification also, and until that is not done, he will not be able to use the account anymore. So he has got his $1600 or so stuck in his MoneyBookers account for some time now, because he has tried to explain that those were customers and he can not ask them to verify their accounts, because nobody is going to send passport copies/driver licences when they can just forget about the service, receiving the same answer!
It seems it is something about the Patriot Act which MoneyBookers follows, but I mean, some times they should be reasonable.
George Has.
