Bankcard Empire review: ripped off 11

helpgetmymoneyback@gmail.com
Send me a email I have been in telemarketing and believe I can show you what has worked for other's!

I got a call from them trying to get me to sign up as an affiliate. After inquiring about start-up costs, the account executive told me that perhaps I would like to start making money right away so he would be asking me for my credit card number to cover the startup fee. I refused to do so, remembering hearing somewhere that you should not give out your credit card number by phone unless you initiated the call. He then gave me the URL of the company website because I did not want to commit right away and then had me let him know when he should call me back. I said next week, so I could research the company over the weekend. After reading about your experience, I am going to tell the account executive that I decided the business is not for me when he calls back.

My mentally disabled friend was recently ripped off for over $5, 000. They won't even respond to her written request for a refund other than try to tell her how it is great, have missed multiple appointments to discuss a refund and will not refund anything.

Who are they?
These guys are doing business under a lot of different names, but they all come back to one thing - they are trying to rip you off:
Bank Card Empire
Ultimate Business Solutions
AIG Promotions
HBO Media
Edgemont Productions

#1 Evidence that they are a SCAM

First of all let's think about their offer. They want you to be an affiliate to refer people to sell their merchant account products. Take a look around at affiliate programs out there. The legitimate ones don't charge you $500 for the opportunity of referring people to them. That is ridiculous and should warn you right away that something is wrong. The website that they are selling you is a replicated website which means it is useless in the search engines and is just a copy of the same thing they give everyone else - they call it 'your' website but it is just their website with your affiliate ID. Legitimate affiliate programs don't charge you to link to their website as an affiliate.

Second they will try to convince you to pay them to market their own product for you. Does that make any sense at all? If they were making money by marketing their product why would they cut you in? They wouldn't!

Here's an example. Let's say I have a business selling merchant accounts. And I make phone calls on the telephone to sell my product. Let's say I make an average of $3 per call. Would I turn around and tell you I would call those people on your behalf for $2 per call? Of course not! I would want to keep the $3, not share it with you. However let's say I make less than $2 per call - say $0 per call. In that case I would sell that to you all day. Think about it! Them charging you for them to do their marketing for their company is obviously wrong. If they were making money on those leads why would they sell them to you instead of use them themselves? The obvious answer is that they aren't making money on those leads and they know perfectly well that you won't either! (Of course once it a while someone will make money, but the VAST majority will lose money.)

When I called in they told me that if I spent $5, 000 that I would make $2, 000 per month forever and would turn a profit on the original $5, 000 within 2-3 months. This is FRAUD. They know perfectly well that this won't happen. If it did, they would spend their OWN $5, 000 and not MY $5, 000 to turn their own profit in 2-3 months. Ask them what percentage of people who buy make a profit. Either they will lie to you or they will deflect the question or say they don't know. (They could know - they just don't want to know.) My guess is that it is well under 1% of those who sign up who make money.

Look around online. You will see a LOT of evidence that A) People aren't making money, B) they won't give you a refund.

Here's how they work:
They get your name as a lead from somewhere indicating that you want to own a business or make money from home. They have several reseller companies some of which as far as I can tell are Ultimage Business Solutions, AIG Promotions, Edgemont Productions, etc. I couldn't figure out for sure how they all fit together but you can know you are part of this same scam if you hear any of those names. Unfortunately, eventually they will change their names to something else because of all of the bad press.

The bottom line is that their REAL business is not selling merchant accounts, their real business is selling their SCAM to you.

Other things of interest:
Bank Card Empire currently has an Unsatisfactory report with the Better Business Bureau and has 76 complaints! That is a lot of complaints for a small company! According to the BBB the business owners of the company are:
Mr. Michael Malkin, Secretary / Treasurer
Ms. Danielle Ashrafi, Director / VP of Agent Relations
Mr. David Mersky, President
Mr. David Weaver, Vice President

They currently have 2 lawsuits pending - 1 in MI and 1 in AZ filed against them - both for fraud. (From what I can tell the principle owners seem to live in MI but the company is based in AZ - there is also some indication that they are based in Houston, TX).

Look around on the web - there are lots of other sites with complaints about them other than just [redacted].

So if you haven't bought yet - DON'T. Hopefully you are one of those wise enough to do a little research and realize this is a really bad idea.

#2 If you have been taken in, what can you do to fight them?

So let's say you have bought and realize that you made a big mistake. Whatever you do don't just be intimidated and walk away. That is what they are counting on you doing! They call it breakage and make a lot of their money because people are just passive and scared and don't do anything when they get ripped off. You need to do something. If not for yourself, then for the thousands and thousands of other people who they are ripping off. (I got involved with investigating them because they ripped off my neighbor who is mentally disabled and living in poverty and still they won't refund her.)

Here are things that generally work and don't work:

Do's

1) File a chargeback through your credit card or credit cards that you purchased with. This is the #1 most important thing to do. First it means you might get your money back. Second, it HURTS THEM. You see the bank that provides their merchant account watches to see how high of a risk they are. The more chargebacks they get (whether you win the chargeback or not) the higher risk the bank considers them. If they get enough chargebacks, eventually the bank will freeze their money, stop doing business with them and possibly even puts them on something called the TMF making it almost impossible for them to get a merchant account anywhere. The bank will take a reserve out on them depending on how many chargebacks they get - hurting their cashflow and ability to scam more people. Also if they get more than 100 chargebacks in a month they get on the watch list with Visa & Mastercard - something VERY expensive for them. If you have Discover make sure that Discover knows what they are all about and they will probably eventually take away their Discover account completely - Discover is aggressively avoiding merchanting these type of companies.

By chargeback I mean call your bank that you have your credit card through and ask to chargeback (get your money back) - have them use the reason code not as described because they promised you income you didn't receive. Or if they charged you more money than they told you they would, charge back using the fraud reason code. (Mostly explain to the person at the bank the details of how you were ripped off and they will help you out. If one rep isn't helpful try another until you find one that is sympathetic to you.)

2) If they fight your chargeback and win, chargeback again! This is super important. First, you have a better chance to win the 2nd chargeback than the 1st. Second, it counts against them twice! So their bank looks at them as being twice the risk - if they got you for $5, 000 and you chargeback twice the bank looks at it as $10, 000 in chargebacks so you get to do double the damage! Eventually they will have to stop fighting chargebacks because if they don't they will lose their merchant account.

3) File a complaint with the Arizona Attorney General Consumer Protection division. The Attorney General's office is the one legal entity that can get to these guys - they have the ability to fine them, shut them down, and even put them in jail. It's their job. You can search online and find the website and file a complaint right online. Be sure to have as much evidence as possible of fraud. What is most important is to provide as much documentation as possible as to how they Misrepresented what they sold you - things like they told you that you would make money in a certain time-frame and then you didn't. In any case, file the complaint. The attorney general's office will pay attention to the volume of complaints - the more complaints they get the more aggressively they will go after them.

4) File a complaint with the Attorney General's Office / Consumer Protection Agency in your state. Most states won't do much but some states have very strict telemarketing laws that they will go after them for. If you live in Kansas definitely file with your state, because they probably aren't in compliance with the 7 day written right to refund.

5) File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. This makes their count of complaints go up at the BBB. It also takes them hours to respond to the complaint. Once the complaint is closed with the BBB (the BBB won't actually do anything) refile the complaint with more information. Once that closes refile again and again until the BBB won't refile it. Each time you do this, they have to spend a bunch of time responding to it and the BBB complaint count goes up.

6) Post on places like [redacted] and other similar websites on the Internet. Be heard and tell your story. You may provide evidence for lawsuits - you will definitely hurt their reputation causing other people to not buy from them and to get their money back.

7) Be persistent on the phone with them. Every time you call in and argue with them about a refund you are costing them money. Don't give up. They have everything to lose. Not everyone at their company is dishonest, perhaps we can convince some of them to go find a job working for an honest company. You have nothing to lose - they already have your money.

8) Be creative. There are probably a lot of other things you can do that are perfectly honest and legitimate that will cost them money to keep your money that they should be returning to you.

Things that aren't all that effective.

1) Going to a lawyer or threatening them with a lawyer (unless you have a brother or uncle that will do it for free.) Let's face it - you probably don't have a spare $20, 000 for the first round of taking them to court.

2) Going to the FBI, FCC or FTC. It's not what they do.

It really makes me laugh to see the people talk about BCE. What they need to say is "I want to sit on my fat ### at home and watch t.v. and do nothing and I want someone to send me money all the time for doing nothing! Like a lifetime Obama package! I also requested information from online so I could do some work from home but I lied I just want to sit around and watch Dr. Phil and eat Ben and Jerry's ice cream."
The person who took time to complain has no other time just some [censored] who has no life and could not make in the world. If they know how BCE works they would not be able to say anything. like why does BCE give us leads to contact instead of BCE contacting them. First we all need to understand that BCE is directley with Visa/Mastercards merchant division. and so instead of having a building with reps and paying taxes and health insurance and etc. etc. for all the employees to be all over to contact these companies weather it be by phone or word of mouth they would rather pay someone who BUYS there own merchant ID number (500 bucks) (just like a car dealer buys there dealers number) to do the contacting for them. so lets look at another way then this [censored] above! Ford makes cars everyone knows that but hey if there was know dealerships would you know where to go get one? Hell no! So Ford and YOU need a dealer who paid for his dealers liscene to contact you and say here I am and I can get you the car you want! right!?
You have to remember all most of these places in busniess are being charged around 5% for everything that is purchased on there merchant teller. BCE is able to drop that in half so if they have 100, 000 going through every month thats 5, 000 they spend a month! well BCE can split that in half and give you 1% of it.
I know times r tough right now and there is money out there to be made its just people dont want to go find it because they are lazy. and the package you get is not a box of just busniess cards like this guy who i would like to say is as smart as ### rolling down a hill, it was full of all sorts of usefull info to get me going and I had a coach that contacted me and helps me and I am able to contact any time! I am make very good money, very well pleased and all I have to say is he probably will get his wish "sitting on his ### and having someone send him free money" ITS CALLED WELFARE! So good luck to all you people who thought you knew.

You are 100% wrong in thinking that your credit card company will "charge back" any fees charged to you...they (the credit card co.'s) protect themselves by stating they will not dispute any charges for "business use". You buy a pair of black shoes and receive brown shoes...they will dispute the charge. You buy a business model, and you have no such protection...LET THE BUYER BEWARE! Bob

I was skeptical at first and still kind of. I signed up anyway and I can say that I have received $500 check for signing up a large account. I am however trying to get ahold of someone to find out about my residuals but I can not get a straight answer. Becareful when talking to the telemarketers, they make claims that are not true like making up to $500 for each terminal that you switch over to them. Actually it is you can get up to $500 per terminal if the new company LEASES the machine. I have been talking to the president of the company David Mersky and he has actually been really helpful smoothing out some of the broken promises, but he too has an attitude and is bad at returning calls. I guess I will post again when (if) I actually see my residuals...

Hi all,

Just today some guy called me on my cell and started talking about $500.00 and how I can get it etc and etc that I should be owning a website and asked me to go to his website which is www.bankcardempire.com and atlast he said he will charge me 19.95$ for every month and asked me what was my visa expiration date and then it hit me no way am I going to give this stranger any details of my visa...so I told him why will I give you the expiration date of my visa, no way... and then he hung up! Wow, what a scam! He tells me did I not know that I can make money on the internet and that too by staying at home! I told him whoever says that isnt true at all.

Well here is the # he called me from...[protected]. Good luck to all. PLEASE DO NOT BELIEVE ANYONE WHO SAYS YOU CAN MAKE MONEY ON THE INTERNET!
Go out and start working in any small place too. That will give us some satisfaction and pride too as no one can steal our own money without our permission.

***Update***

I can say that I have seen a residual payment from Bankcard Empire. The payment was for the first and second month and it totaled around $1400. I feel that this amount is low for the two months considering I was told I would receive 1% of the volume that was ran through the terminal. I should aslo tell everyone that these results are not normal, I got lucky and signed the company I work for up. They process hundreds of thousands of dollars per month. I should be getting my check for May within the next couple of weeks, so I guess I will see how that goes. Once you get past the sales people (not all of them, I can recommend a good one) and all their lies you can actually make money. The one thing that the sales staff is consitant at is lieing to make a sale. I will also say that the president of the company helped me out with a problem I had with one of the salesman. If I remember I will post a copy of the check or the stub on here when I get my next check, but I will mark out all my information and any of their banking info just for security purposes. My attitude is still neutral towards BCE because I don't think I am receiving ALL of my residuals, but I am in constant contact with the president and the lady that cuts the checks. If I can be any help, please let me know.

I also have been ripped off from bankcard empire for $10, 000.00 plus 175.00 start-up costs and 19.95 per month for website. I have filed compliants with BBB in Arizona and the Attorney General office. I filed out a scam report with the postal service, but I have heard nothing. I would be willing to be part of a class action lawsuit against these people and the affliate companies.

Thanks

Beverly Bixler
aero62@verizon.net

i am a witness to thier scam richard m, and ray pretty they scam my disalbed mother for 200.00 dollars and she has not been able to get a hold of anyone now they are tring to sue her and other for defamtionbut let me tell them something they have rip off to many people to keep their doors open so see you in court. so you get off your fat ### and quit backing a company that has scamed so many people.

They said I would make money by using call blasts. it cost me $4300.00 plus $516.00 enrollment fee. to this date I have made nothing and they will not refund my money because they have a no refund policy which they said they told me when I enrolled. this was a lie. they have the transaction recorded so when I requested a refund they said they would play back the tape and if there was no mention of the no refund policy they would refund my money. there was no mention and they refused to give me a refund. they also said that after 12 months if I didn't make any money I would get a refund. this also was a lie. and there were no call blasts done because I contacted some of the companies on my website and their response was that they never heard of bankcard empire. there was also misrepresentation because they said they are affiliated with visa and mastercard. this was not true because I called both and they stated they also never heard of bankcard empire.