I've spent a TON of time over the past several weeks doing research on Neteller. I have done literally thousands of different web searches. And what I have found scares the crap out of me because I'm a US resident and I have a large balance stuck with these pricks. Since Jan 16 when their two founders were arrested almost everything Neteller has said to me on the phone has either been a flat lie or later turned out to be something designed to placate or misdirect me just to get me off the phone.
They supposedly have a procedure for moving to another country. If you have a large balance this is probably your best option for getting out.
Getting info from Neteller for exactly how to do this gets harder every day. You have to know exactly what questions to ask and you have to be able to talk to the right person. Neteller recently downsized in Canada. The call center people who are left are not there to help you resolve anything. Worse, they are overloaded with incoming calls. Wait times are long if you can get through at all. Lately their standard answer for any question seems to be "We don't have that information here. All we are doing right now is providing a website where US residents can check for updates. Do you have that url? Here... let me give that to you. Got it? You do? Ok. Bye." Click.
But I eventually did find out their procedure for moving to another country and this is in the works for me right now. I'm just waiting for my passport so I can travel. If and when that works for me I'll let one of the mods here know about it. (More on why a mod and not a post by me later.) Keep reading.
So are there non-gaming merchants?
One of the things I also tried to get from Neteller was a complete list of their merchants. They used to provide this and cheerfully. But now they refuse to give this information out. Why? Because their prospectus talks about how many of their merchants are non gambling related. But the reality is something different entirely. One of the things very likely to happen down the road is that Neteller will face lawsuits from investors who lost money as a result of owning shares of Neteller stock. Of course they'll all be claiming the reason they bought shares in the first place was based on what was printed in the prospectus.
I was also able to get a complete copy of the source code for the Neteller Merchant API along with white papers and instructions for implementing it as part of a merchant website. This was extremely interesting to me because I am a programmer. Even more so because the Neteller merchant API has some serious security flaws built into it. It's true. There is a VERY interesting thread at MW worth reading:
http://www.majorwager.com/forums/mess-hall/144253-unauthorized-transfer-my-neteller-account.html
Back to merchants. In my web searches I was able to get a list of merchant codes for hundreds of sportsbooks and online casinos. Really useful stuff if I wanted to move money back and forth between books. But as a US resident I can't do that any more... or can I? Hint: That's one option I haven't explored yet that might actually work. Who knows? Maybe with a little inside help from somebody working at one of the books. But finding the same information for other types of Neteller merchants was almost impossible. Neteller personnel have been instructed not to give that out.
But I was actually able to stumble across a few merchants (nowhere close to the percentage claimed in the prospectus) not related to gambling at all. And since about 2/15 I have been in contact with several who sell things that might help a US resident like myself get out. And yes... included among those is the card company VanWilson has been talking about.
I want to emphasize this: To date none of my efforts with non gambling merchants has panned out. That's not to say that they won't. It's too early in my dealings with any of them for anything tangible to have materialized just yet.
If and when something DOES pan out for me I'll let one of the mods here know.
I don't want to post explicit info on a public message board about exactly how to get out. Why not?
Does anyone remember what happened last month when people were posting on message boards about US residents getting out by way of peer to peer transactions? Neteller saw this and shut off peer to peer transactions for US residents! They didn't stop there. They temporarily closed the accounts of non US residents who had accepted peer to peer transactions from US residents! What does that tell you? Neteller doesn't want us to be able to get out. If people start posting about how they got out what do you think Neteller is going to do? IMHO they are going to shut off that avenue ASAP.
So if and when something DOES pan out for me I'll let one of the mods here know. Hopefully they can then pass explicit info on to you behind the scenes.
That way, provided it's even possible to get out at all, maybe more of us can manage to get out.
-jp
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