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I wanted to buy a laptop from Lenovo shop, but it turned out they were not accepting my card, so I went on to the EntroPay. This website, as it mentions, provides Virtual Credit Cards for online shopping from any shopping portal. I believed that part and went on to register on that website for a free Virtual Credit Card. They offered me to only disclose the Virtual Credit Card's number and details if I add funds to that Virtual Credit Card using my bank card. The minimum funds they required me to add to disclose the Virtual Credit Card information was US$5.

Because the laptop that I wished to buy had an online price of about US$1147.99 at that time, I tried adding that amount using my bank card, but the transaction for US$1147.99 against my card was failing for some reason. So I tried making a transaction of a smaller amount such as US$100 and it got through. Since then I started making small transactions, and it must be 20 or some transactions in order to fill the Virtual Credit Card with US$1147.99, just enough so that I can purchase the laptop from Lenovo Group.

After the virtual credit card had enough money in order for me to purchase the laptop, I tried buying the same laptop from Lenovo shop using the newly provided Virtual Credit Card by EntroPay. When I hit submit to finish my order with Lenovo Group for the laptop, it informed me that the transaction was unsuccessful for some reason. I thought a failed transaction shouldn't affect the money I have on the virtual card, but Lenovo had put a hold on US$1147.99 already, thus freezing the said amount on the Virtual Credit Card.

I called Lenovo and the Post Sales Agent informed me it would take up to 30 days to release the hold of US$1147.99 due to international nature of the transaction.

Today, when I went to the EntroPay website, they told me that they've suspended my account. I asked them what would happen to my US$1147.99+ that my Entropay account holds, they never replied about refunding that money but told me they tried to charge my card with US$1147.99 and have failed to do so. I wondered why they tried to charge US$1147.99 from my card when they are not authorized to do so.

Searched on the internet a little about the company and turns out that's what they do, once the user adds a big amount to their service they snag it first by blocking the access to the user's account and then suspending the account at the same time.

Can anybody help me what strategy should I pursue in order to get my US$1147.99 back from them?

I have registered a fraud report on UK Police's ActionFraud, but on the internet, they're saying it is of no use.

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    Too many comments. Don't put answers in the comments, put them in the answers =)
    – MrChrister
    May 19, 2014 at 14:13
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    This is Mark Anthony Spiteri, product manager at EntroPay. I am sorry that you had a bad experience, could you please provide me with your username by emailing [email protected] with subject "FAO Mark Anthony Spiteri" so I can review the case and come back to you ASAP. Once again sorry for the inconvenience.
    – user15108
    May 20, 2014 at 8:03
  • I faced same issue. I was adding money to my virtual card from PNB Bank and after successful transaction, entropay.com showing zero money. I lost my 2159.43 INR.
    – Md Mohsin
    Oct 2, 2014 at 5:51
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    Were you able to get your money back?
    – Kevin Fegan
    Jun 23, 2015 at 3:34

3 Answers 3

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Call the credit card company you used to fund the account and file claims against each transaction used to top up the entropay account. File it either as merchandise not received, or in your case it sounds like unauthorized transaction would be appropriate as well. Your (real) credit card company will lodge the dispute and get your money back, usually will credit your account back within a couple of days. Be sure to follow up with your credit card company, as they usually send you some forms to fill out and sign before they finalize the claim.

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I've had fairly extensive experience using Entropay, with a few hiccups along the way.

I suspect your transaction or repeated top-ups has been flagged as 'suspicious' activity. Read: potentially fraudulent or money laundering.

You've also tried to buy expensive electronic goods, a common use of fraud/laundering.

Finally, Entropay does NOT provide address validation. Again, with laptops being a common use for fraud, it is more than likely Lenovo attempted to do an address validation on your card details, which failed and may have led to the hold.

How to resolve it? You will probably need to provide documentation to Entropay including proof of identity and where you live.

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You can try to hassle them via any customer service contact methods they provide (email, phone) and pressure them to give you your money back. Good luck with that. Or you can try reporting them to authorities and/or bringing legal action against them in the country where they are based, which is apparently Malta. Good luck with that too.

As you say in your question, some internet searches reveal that other people have had similar problems with Entropay and were unable to resolve them. Unfortunately, there is a good chance you are screwed. In such a case, the best thing you can do is to post your experience on scam forums and trust websites like trustpilot.com and webutation.info so that others won't face the same fate in the future.

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    They don't even provide a phone number!
    – Tom
    Aug 28, 2015 at 10:23

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