Power Sellers Unite

Bidstar · Joined: 08 Oct 2005 Posts: 19 Location: California

I am the owner of Bidstar.net and as an alternative auction site I have been looking for other alternative payment methods for my users to use other then just PayPal. So I added other loggos to my site for StormPay, BidPay and the newest GreenZap. Well eventhoe I am offering some of these payment options I have removed the link to StormPay because of there pricing and BidPay because they are no longer in business and now let me tell you about GreenZap. I have been receiving emails regarding there stock options and I have been just deleting the emails regarding them becuase I was not interested in buying there stock. That may have been a big mistake. This is a complaint I received from one of my users regarding GreenZap ( I have blanked out her name and account information to protect her privacy):

I received the email below and I responded because it sounded like they were going to start taking money out of my account.

"XXXXX,

We recently called you regarding GreenZap's WebCash for stock program, which will allow you to exchange your WebCash for GreenZap stock. Out of almost 700,000 GreenZap members, you are one of only 2% who have been approved for this program.

The program will allow you to exchange up to $3,000 in WebCash for GreenZap stock

As a condition of the exchange, we ask that you purchase a minimum of $1,000 worth of WebCash. By purchasing the WebCash, you will receive a matching bonus of $1,000 in WebCash, giving you a total of $2,000. You may then exchange the $2,000 in WebCash, along with any other WebCash you have (up to $3,000) towards the exchange for GreenZap stock, or use it towards GreenZap store purchases.

As an approved member, we will allow you to spread the WebCash purchase over a period of 10 months, making it just $100 per month. Following is the bank account we have on file for you:

Bank: Bank of America
Account Number: xxxxxxxx

If have any questions please e-mail me back, otherwise, the first payment of $100 will be deducted from your account on Monday, February 20, 2006. A response is not required to accept the offer.

We are excited to have you as part of our community and look forward sharing the rewards of the company's success.

Sincerely,

GreenZap - Member Relations

Ok now since I have been ignoring there emails it looks like I have purchased there stock. Look at the more recent email that I received:

The purpose of this e-mail is to clarify the information about the WebCash Exchange - Partner Program that you were approved for. As part of the program, you will receive the following benefits:

1. $1,000 WebCash bonus.

2. Receive referral credit for 20 members - issued to you direct from GreenZap.

3. Qualified to exchange WebCash for Airline Miles or Points via corporate partnerships.

4. Exclusively participate as a partner in GreenZap's corporate Cash-Back program, allowing you to earn up to $300 per personally referred member(whether Free or Gold).

We will provide greater details early next week. Have a great weekend.

Sincerely,

Jason
GreenZap Partner Relations

Well so I deleted all my emails from them and since I did not respond does this mean they will be taking $100.00 a month from my account? Well I am amazed if this is legal however I am really mad and I have emailed them for a response. In the meantime I have removed there logo from our site as well. I guess were back to PayPal. We really need to watch out for this one! And I am also having a hard time believing that they currently have 700,000 members. What do you think? Has anyone else heard anything about this?

GAELICTITCA · Joined: 25 Apr 2005 Posts: 1384

I just went and read over some the the GreenZap site and their
FAQ section.

Ummmm--- No, I don't think so. Makes one yearn for the simplicity
and straightforwardness of PayPal (yes, said with dripping sarcasm)

GPay, oh GPay.....
Where art thou GPay???

LurkeyLou · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 10:29 am Post subject: Re: Watch out for GreenZap!

Bidstar, it would be prudent for GZ members to close bank accounts and cancel credit cards associated with GZ accounts.

Can funds be taken from accounts without approval? Fraud occurs every day, and often to people who've not supplied this sensitive information to 3rd parties.

I did a fair amount of research on GZ last April. It was discovered early on that GZ was headed up Damon Westmoreland - a felon with multiple fraud convictions. The mailing address for GZ was a PO Box in one of those mailing centers - in a grocery store in La Jolla, CA. La Jolla is in San Diego County. Westmoreland lives in San Diego County. He lived in Escondido at the time, but used a more financially impressive La Jolla address. The company phone number, which was at first a CA # was, for a time (I do not know the current status), changed to a cell phone issued to a New Jersey resident. But Westmoreland stepped back out and grabbed the reins of the con once the furor died down a bit.

GZ opened based on a scheme to shuffle $$ around to pay out rewards. If people wanted to reach the "gold" level, they had to fund their account with $100.00, and then GZ would pay out $30.00 for every referral.

There were thousands of people gushing about what a fabulous payment system GZ was, and NO ONE HAD EVER USED THE SYSTEM! Further, people were registering, on a FINANCIAL SITE that was not even SSL encrypted.

So we had thousands of people shoving their information on a non-secure server to give a fraud convicted felon $100.00 so that he could dole it back out as a "reward". In addition, those pre-registrations began in March 2005, GZ was not registered as a business entity in the state of CA until June 2005. That phase of the con had decent people using their good reputation to promote GZ to their friends and associates.

It's been less than a year since GZ officially launched. Contrary to the published story of a "...$2 million funding limit of this offering, we were unable to allow more of our users to participate..." I suspect that the 2% that were given the "opportunity" to invest, are the 2% of the 700,000 that funded their accounts with the $100.00 so that they could achieve the gold level.

If users are the least bit concerned with GZ taking funds from their accounts, they need to disassociate their accounts TODAY.

knappschiles · Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 4027 Location: Wi

There was a great thread on the old FAS about Greenzap. I happened to save it before FAS disapeared. I have it copied up on my web site. Links to the 4 pages are in this thread http://www.powersellersunite.com/viewtopic.php?t=1285

If you have any doubts about the fact that GZ is truely a con, please, please read that thread from FAS.

Carol

Bidstar · Joined: 08 Oct 2005 Posts: 19 Location: California

Thank you for all the information on GreenZap. I just think it is unfair that I would have to respond to an E-Mail and If I do not respond I will be signed up for a program and funds deducted from my account. I checked my account and no funds have been deducted at least for now. I think at the very least some needed repair is in order for thir customer relations department. I have received a response from GreenZap regarding this issue and the CEO of GreenZap is to be calling me next wendsday when he gets back from England. I will keep you informed concerning my discussion. Two E-Mails have been received by me from GreenZap. One purporting a letter was sent out accidently to some users who did not want the program. Another stating that I can be assured that no money will be deducted from anyones account that does not want to be part of the program. I am really interested in what the CEO has to say. I am forwarding this link to my users via E-Mail so they can also see this discussion.

Earthfragments.com · Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 4:31 am Post subject:

holy scammerooski batman.

beckysthisnthat · Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1577 Location: Texas

I would think you could call your bank and block any transaction from Greenzap giving them the information you have. Keep us posted!

mojavelyn · Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 10:52 am Post subject:

Contact the Fraud dept of your bank, forward the email to them, or print it out, with the notation you did not in any way, approve this transaction. And CYA ... report it to the FBI yourself. This reeks of fraud.

*southie* · Joined: 25 Aug 2005 Posts: 1728 Location: Sunny Florida

What everyone's told you - DO IT - if you don't know where
your Bank's 800 number - pull out your Debit/Check Card,
and it's right SMACK in there ...

OR

Go to your bank's website - login - and there's a fraud link
in there too ...

I know some peeps already who got Zapped by GreenZap!

Fortunately -- after logging in and making an account, and
then telling everyone about it, and they freaked out - being
the weekened - and so kept an eye on the account and
suddenly I think they said $300 was made (I am guessing
GreenZap attempted to withdraw $300) - and they wasted
NO TIME - but LUCKY THEM - the BANK already caught that
and was doing a process of halting and reversing the
unauthorized withdrawl.

They put a temporary block on the account to prevent them
from accessing it - and they had to go down to the bank and
close off the account and notating who was authorized to
withdraw and open another account ...

Once they get the information - it's spread around - and
while the account was long closed off - there's been other
people who attempted to "withdraw" from a closed bank account
and all information was turned over to the Law Enforcement
Agency ...

I have to admit - I was very close to signing up and glad I decided
to do more homework!!

beckysthisnthat · Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1577 Location: Texas

That was the one good thing that came out of being on Overstock as it was there that I read warnings about Greenzap...before I found you all great people! :wink:

mojavelyn · Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 12:54 pm Post subject:

Greenzap hit the yahoo greedbay group also, after a couple of posts, most of the stuff that was in the FAS thread was posted in Greedbay. It took me years to sign up with PP. I don't have money to lose like that.

Legitimate MLM (multi level marketing) can be good. But the key words in pyramid scams is you have to continously buy in and requite others, and you can't use accumalated credits.

There is another going on now, I think its propay12 or something like that. All the earmarks of a ponzi.

LurkeyLou · Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 1:09 pm Post subject:

Bidstar wrote:
I just think it is unfair that I would have to respond to an E-Mail and If I do not respond I will be signed up for a program and funds deducted from my account.

Bidstar, they can pull GZ off of the server tomorrow. Sociopaths don't care what people think.

Bidstar wrote:
I think at the very least some needed repair is in order for thir customer relations department.

Repair their customer relations department?? You and thousands of others are in a position to be relieved of your hard earned money, and you're concerned about their customer relations department??

Frankly, I think at the very least, people must protect their assets. To do otherwise is not logical. They told people that they are going to take their money, and that's how they'll justify the action. We informed members that payments would be electronically transferred from their account at the rate of $100.00 a month. They had an opportunity to opt-out by responding with an e-mail.

How many people, like you, have been deleting the e-mails?? How does it sit with you that they might address your concerns, but burn thousands of other members? Some of which you may have recommended to the service?

"Investing" in a company is an opt-in proposition, you send them money. A legitimate company does not take your money to invest in their interest unless you opt-out.

Bidstar wrote:
I have received a response from GreenZap regarding this issue and the CEO of GreenZap is to be calling me next wendsday when he gets back from England.

Interesting. These guys are confidence men. I watched (I'm thinking it was greenzapcommunity) a couple of skeptical people's reaction after having a telephone conversation w/ Westmoreland. They were transformed into GZ cheerleaders. Confidence men (and women) gain your confidence in order to steal your money.

Think about it: you want reassurance and answers to questions from a company that has access to your assets. You must wait to speak with the person who is supposed to address your concerns. He is out of the country and you can not reach him. If GZ decides to clean out hundreds - or thousands - of member bank accounts, you're all going to be in a position of not being able to reach the principals. If mortgage payments are bouncing and there's no money for groceries, GZ principals won't be first priority for most people.

===================================================================

Did you know that GZ's "FDIC pass-through insurance" info is nearly a duplicate of PayPal's?? It's not an industry standard or requirement, it was done to help create confidence in GZ. They went that far, why not provide a list, as PayPal does, of the banking institutions that they are associated with? Gee, could it be because you can check on a company's association with a banking instution and/or quickly point law enforcement in the direction of your funds if the need be?

GZ is not a publicly traded company. What's with this $2 Million Dollar Round of Financing", which BTW, is only available in company written/self published press releases?? What benefit do members derive from their "investment"?

===================================================================

Please access the San Diego BBB. You'll note that Damon Westmoreland was associated with another online payment pyramid scheme type of company. In addition, the BBB references additional companies that his is associated with - you can access the records and do more research for yourself.

BBB Report as of 2/18/2006:
http://www.sandiego.bbb.org/commonreport.html?bureau=sandiego&compid=27002208

===================================================================

The CEO is in England? Maybe. Maybe not....

PROTECT YOUR ASSETS
while relaxing on the beach!

Let us show you how the WEALTHY have done it for years!

Location: We are located on the island of Aruba, which is a island in the Caribbean, 30 miles north of Venezuela.

Damon Westmoreland, Executive Vice President, resides in San Diego...

reference: http://turideas.com/2caruba.htm

===================================================================

There are so many red flags here that anyones willingness to continue a relationship with GZ is truly terrifying. I hope that each and every negative point that I've brought up is completely off the mark. I'd much prefer to be considered a fool than to see hundreds, possibly thousands, of good people victimized. But then, I'm not a sociopath with multiple felony counts of fraud on record.

Bidstar · Joined: 08 Oct 2005 Posts: 19 Location: California

Thank you LurkeyLou for your comments and for dissecting all my sentences to pieces. :lol: In other words I get the point. :) I do want it to be clear that no fraud had been committed that I am aware of. I emailed all my users concerning this and to my knowledge no one has been a victim of fraud concerning GreenZap at least on my site. I have read links acusing greenzap and I have read many acusing StormPay and some acusing paypal (holding funds, Complaints to the Better Business and those sort of things.) Informational links that I found here and other sites. I never used Greenzap before this but had been using stormpay and paypal and had never had a problem with them. Storm pay charges both sides for the transaction and seems to be a little expensive and does not integrate well into our website but other then that they have been ok. As for as I am concerned I know paypal is owned be E-Bay however they have been good to work with and the best so far. I like it that they work with programmers and are so easy to get implemented. I was just posting this to see if I could get a response concerning the complaint I received regarding this letter from one of my users and I appreciate your comments and hope this help others. I would be interested in hearing from someone that has actually been a victim of fraud from Greenzap or any online payment service. You can even call me if you want at 707-813-7585 My Cell Phone. Like I said on my earlier post I will let you know what happens on wednsday I am really even wondering if someone will actually call me at all. It will be interesting at the very least.

Bidstar · Joined: 08 Oct 2005 Posts: 19 Location: California

:cry: Well I know it is hard to believe but no one from GreenZap called me today and it's Wednsday! Oh well.... :( Surprise surprise.

mojavelyn · Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 12:17 pm Post subject:

Don't wait for fraud to be committed, for your own peace of mind... contact your bank and remove any authorizations Greenzap has.