Flippa Privacy Issue

[premkumar]

I brought a domain from a seller through private transaction using flippa. I just made the Escrow payment and for the process Flippa sent me an SMS code and i did enter the code and escrow done.

Now my seller pushed the domain to my Godaddy account and the problem started. Now i have to release the payment and when i tried releasing the payment. Flippa ask me to click to receieve the SMS to verify it. I did do it but i didn't receive any SMS from Flippa. I tried more than dozen time in past 24 hours and no SMS code from them.

I raised a ticket about and saying previously did receive SMS but now i am not able to get one. Now they say that i can go for static PIN. That great but the catch is.

1. I have to send them my ID proof (Passport or Driving license)
2. A selfie holding the same Document in my hand showing my face( on reading this, i got the feel like How in US police take prisoner photo with a slate)

I told them i prefer you better fix the SMS to my country, so that will be more convenient( as i previously received your SMS and now also I get SMS from my bank, so issue is on flippa SMS Gateway) They replied:

"While we can look into our SMS provider, it's unlikely that any potential issues would be resolved in a timely enough fashion for your particular listing.

The static PIN is the best possible solution given you've intermittently received our PIN SMSs as then you are not relying on a mobile phone at any time to proceed with your Flippa Escrow transactions."

I replied:

I was not interested in giving my ID info because of my privacy and i don't believe in private company holding my information. Hope you understand.

I also asked them to manual review the transaction and release it. Hope good sense prevail.

The culture of, oh fine give your ID is becoming so common. Whats you stake on it.

 

[NAMEFISH]

I haven't had that kind of issues, but why will I give out my ID even when am the one buying and they have already collected my money from me to is no sense but for the seller that should be his/her worries to get his fund

 

[premkumar]

yes your are right, i just want to help the seller to get his money. Its stuck with Flippa. One more thing, i already verfied once when i setup escrow, so this one is 2nd time verification. It didn't make sense

 

[NAMEFISH]

I don't want all this kind of trouble's from anyone so I trade with collusion, check my profile you bad reviews of not paying though my own case is different some

 

[premkumar]

I don't want all this kind of trouble's from anyone so I trade with collusion, check my profile you bad reviews of not paying though my own case is different some

In my case, i did paid and the seller know its in Flippa Escrow. Money is with Flippa and not with me.

 

[NAMEFISH]

I knew already I have been seeing bad reviews of flippa escrow

 

[infojunkie]

I sold my first name at Flippa. So far they have asked for my name, date of birth, and phone number. They just asked now for my social security number and bank account number even though I have Paypal as a payout. Has Flippa ever been hacked? This seems like a lot of info to be at one company.

 

[Cdomains]

They just asked now for my social security number and bank account number even though I have Paypal as a payout.

I have had a Flippa account for a while now, but have not used them because of all the bad reviews here on the forum.

I had a similar problem with Paypal and they will keep on asking for more and more personal information and you will have to send them every bit of your personal info and still they will not help you.

There are many horror stories about Paypal on the web. I believe Flippa is going down the same path.

I will never give Flippa or any site my personal documents. It is none of their business and even my bank does not require the kind of ID's they do.

It is a completely unreasonable request and puts all your personal information at risk.

 

[FlippaDomains]

I have had a Flippa account for a while now, but have not used them because of all the bad reviews here on the forum.

I had a similar problem with Paypal and they will keep on asking for more and more personal information and you will have to send them every bit of your personal info and still they will not help you.

There are many horror stories about Paypal on the web. I believe Flippa is going down the same path.

I will never give Flippa or any site my personal documents. It is none of their business and even my bank does not require the kind of ID's they do.

It is a completely unreasonable request and puts all your personal information at risk.

To be clear, Flippa isn't asking you - it is usually a payment gateway or escrow service (in this case, PromisePay - also known as Flippa Escrow) that requires such information.

They require this information not to put you at risk, but because the financial institutions that back them require it.

We (Flippa) are working on ways to notify our customers before the transaction process begins what information may be required prior to utilizing a particular payment method.

Our payment gateway partner (PromisePay) is working on making the KYC (Know Your Customer) checks more streamlined and potentially less rigorous.

All in all, if you're concerned about your privacy, I'd like to hear what you are comfortable putting forth as identification or some form of collateral to prove your identity. I'm not singling you out, but generally speaking, if you are asked for more and more identification it is for a reason - i.e. the service provider is seeing discrepancies (technical, identification-related, payment-related, etc). I am curious what level of trust you have with other domaining services, their payment gateways and KYC-check processes...

 

[m-i-k-e]

Am I reading this right.. You can't release payment to the seller until you give up photos of you and your ID? That's insane!

I fully support you in not giving out those photos, if you did it opens up the situation of somebody else using those photos to "prove" that they are you.

If Flippa isn't asking customers to send this information they need to cut ties with the company that's causing all of this BS. Reading that a buyer can't release funds because he hasn't sent a photo of himself holding his ID puts me in a position where I have to cancel my current Flippa auctions (those that haven't met reserve), until Flippa makes some changes. I can't do outbound marketing of my auctions and direct buyers to Flippa knowing that a business owner or marketing director might be told he has to send in a mugshot of himself holding his driver's license. I don't use Flippa escrow which might make it ok, but if it isn't Flippa with these policies why do you partner with this company and why is it called Flippa Escrow?

if you are asked for more and more identification it is for a reason

No, it's not. Why do they want a photo of me and my ID to pay me for a name that I already transferred to the buyer?

 

[Cdomains]

I'm not singling you out, but generally speaking, if you are asked for more and more identification it is for a reason

I opened a legitimate business account with Paypal a few years ago. This was a real and registered company. Gave them all they asked. Before I even had a chance to use the account they froze it and asked for lots of unreasonable info.

I had not even used it once!!! I gave them all the usual stuff. Then they wanted photos of all Ids, utility bills and more. They already had everything else. In the end they basically wanted most if not all my personal info. For what? I had not even used the account yet, and there was not a logical reason for them to be concerned.

In this day and age with all the identity theft, I would not send what was basically every piece of my personal info to some employee at Paypal for them to store on a server just waiting to be stolen.

They would not even allow me to close the account until I provided the info. Since I had connected my business account to them and now I could not disconnect it, I had to close that account to be safe.

To this day the account is still not closed and has never been used.I will never use them for a big transaction.

Paypal recently was the subject of a big lawsuit because of the way they screwed people.

Just search Google and you will find lots of horror stories about PayPal holding people's money and refusing to give it up.

I understand if it is your payment processor that requires the information. It is a tricky thing, on the one hand they want to make sure everyone is safe, but on the other they ask too much of people in a time when so much is at stake with everyone's information on the web.

I don't know what the answer is, I just know I am not comfortable putting most of my personal info on the web just waiting to be stolen or used by some company employee in a bad way.

My bank has never even asked for a fraction of the info some processors ask for. It doesn't make sense.

It may not be Flippa that is asking for the ID's directly, but it is still your platform.

I believe the person who started the thread stated they were asked for the ID because the SMS did not work and Flippa ignored them.

Maybe you should work on that before you ask people to send their personal ID's over the net, putting them at risk for no reason.

 

[Cdomains]

I am curious what level of trust you have with other domaining services, their payment gateways and KYC-check processes.

I use Escrow/com for everything, even small transactions. I would rather pay a larger fee if I have to, and get less money in the end, and know I will be safe and not have a charge back or have a domain stolen.

They handle some very large transactions. I have not had a problem with them and they have never asked for all my ID.

 

[Cdomains]

I can't do outbound marketing of my auctions and direct buyers to Flippa knowing that a business owner or marketing director might be told he has to send in a mugshot of himself holding his driver's license.

Good point! That would not be a good thing.

 

[MasterOfMyDomains]

As mr wonderful would say
Flippa your dead to me
Time to find a new escrow service buddy.

 

[Cdomains]

As mr wonderful would say
Flippa your dead to me

Very funny!!

 

[platey]

I brought a domain from a seller through private transaction using flippa. I just made the Escrow payment and for the process Flippa sent me an SMS code and i did enter the code and escrow done.

Now my seller pushed the domain to my Godaddy account and the problem started. Now i have to release the payment and when i tried releasing the payment. Flippa ask me to click to receieve the SMS to verify it. I did do it but i didn't receive any SMS from Flippa. I tried more than dozen time in past 24 hours and no SMS code from them.

I raised a ticket about and saying previously did receive SMS but now i am not able to get one. Now they say that i can go for static PIN. That great but the catch is.

1. I have to send them my ID proof (Passport or Driving license)
2. A selfie holding the same Document in my hand showing my face( on reading this, i got the feel like How in US police take prisoner photo with a slate)

I told them i prefer you better fix the SMS to my country, so that will be more convenient( as i previously received your SMS and now also I get SMS from my bank, so issue is on flippa SMS Gateway) They replied:

"While we can look into our SMS provider, it's unlikely that any potential issues would be resolved in a timely enough fashion for your particular listing.

The static PIN is the best possible solution given you've intermittently received our PIN SMSs as then you are not relying on a mobile phone at any time to proceed with your Flippa Escrow transactions."

I replied:

I was not interested in giving my ID info because of my privacy and i don't believe in private company holding my information. Hope you understand.

I also asked them to manual review the transaction and release it. Hope good sense prevail.

The culture of, oh fine give your ID is becoming so common. Whats you stake on it.

a great point you make as not many will have had this problem but will be interested to see how you solve it

you may end up having to use a privacylawyer or not have privacy etc but you are entitled to your privacy because thats a right?

{a hot potato}

 

[barefooted]

This kind of verification is stupid because one can use Photoshop and provide any images they want.
They know it but are obliged by the law to ask for it.
You may put a "for Escrow use only" note trough the photos.

 

[Cdomains]

a great point you make as not many will have had this problem but will be interested to see how you solve it

you may end up having to use a privacylawyer or not have privacy etc but you are entitled to your privacy because thats a right?

{a hot potato}

This is the reason I have never and will never use Flippa.
I understand the need for verification to make sure things are on the up and up, but what they ask goes too far.

I have seen this happen again and again - they mess up, that is their system messes up, many times the sms you mentioned doesn't work and then they make you jump through hoops to complete a transaction that should have gone smoothly in the first place.

They seem to do this a lot - that is, asking for a picture of someone holding their ID.

In this time of concern about identity the/ft and hac/king who in their right mind would risk having their ID, with their picture holding it stored on a company server just waiting to be stolen.

Crazy.

Get your act together Flippa and fix your system so that your customers don't have to go through this BS every time you mess up.

 

[platey]

This is the reason I have never and will never use Flippa.
I understand the need for verification to make sure things are on the up and up, but what they ask goes too far.

I have seen this happen again and again - they mess up, that is their system messes up, many times the sms you mentioned doesn't work and then they make you jump through hoops to complete a transaction that should have gone smoothly in the first place.

They seem to do this a lot - that is, asking for a picture of someone holding their ID.

In this time of concern about identity the/ft and hac/king who in their right mind would risk having their ID, with their picture holding it stored on a company server just waiting to be stolen.

Crazy.

Get your act together Flippa and fix your system so that your customers don't have to go through this BS every time you mess up.

every problem in itself creates its solution?

people only use websites that are a pleasure to use

if people dont find using that website enjoyable etc or problematic they will find a better website that already exists or the will design and build a better website

domain name values are diluted tho by there being too many domain name auction websites

if icann etc had a weekly live auction or online auction etc the price of good quality domain names would soar as there would be more competition for good quality expensive domain names and sold prices would increase significantly