HN Explorer

Payoneer blocks funds to thousands of users over Wirecard fraud

25 points by nickfromseattle ↗ HN
Minutes ago my entire team reported they are unable to access the funds in their Payoneer accounts.

They confirmed with their friends at other companies - they are also unable to access their Payoneer funds.

This is backed up by hundreds of users on Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?q=%40payoneer&src=typed_query

Payoneer issued a statement updated as recently as 6/25 indicating that the Wirecard fraud didn't impact customer funds, it's business as normal, no loss of access to funds: https://blog.payoneer.com/exclusive/wirecard-in-the-news-its...

As recently as 5 hours ago @Payoneer claimed funds were accessible: https://twitter.com/Payoneer/status/1276475630041870337

24 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 58.3 ms ] thread
pharmasolin
Affected all accounts or just those which had card issued and linked with the account?
freitasm
Not sure as it is very hard to get an answer from Payoneer at the moment.
dushan01
What Payoneer is saying is BS. It is not just card that's not working anymore. My funds were frozen, so I could not withdraw it to my bank account either. They always looked to me like a shady business, but I kept using since I had no alternative. I've put up with it somehow. Now they proved my gut feeling was right. I would not be surprised they were deeply involved somehow in grand scheme of this.
freitasm
That's what's happening with me as well. Unfortunately some payment came into my account just overnight and that's now frozen. I have switched to a similar service (TransferWise) for that specific affiliate but this change won't get in effect until next cycle - not helpful since I got this month's payment straight into my Payoneer account. Arghh.

I hope this affects cards only and not the funds as those were debit cards, not prepay.

[EDIT] Sorry, I think I was mistaken - the cards were prepay and only funds above $5000 were held by Payoneer.

dushan01
Today I was able to withdraw amount above the card limit to my bank account. At least something. "Amount below the limit" on card, still stays frozen
tiernano
Not directly related, but Curve (other fintech based in UK that acts as a proxy for credit or debit cards) have issued a statement that wire cards license had been pulled and all their cards are currently dead (wire card was the issuing bank). They did say they are working on a fix. New card to be issued. Money in payoneer might be safe but the card ain't... might be wrong (hope not for people with money there...) [update] link to statement: https://community.curve.app/t/wirecard-updates/22539
jxub
Today they have just unblocked their cards.
jxub
Edit my comment above: not really, got email that it's suspended until notice.
freitasm
You should now have received an email update folks...
boraoztunc
And because of some greedy mfkcrs, our lives affected again. I hope Payoneer will manage to pull this off.

Can we use our cards currently? I do my grocery shopping from my debit card :/

bishalb
Is it still possible to withdraw the money from Payoneer via wire transfer?
econcon
Payoneer is a joke company. Sometime back we were using epsyments to pay the salaries of our post Soviet nation based contractors, they were better but I think now it doesn't work anymore?

And Payoneer was always very difficult to sign up to.

ibobriakov
Epayments is not working since around February 2020
mickelsen
Are these guys associated with WebMoney (wmtransfer)? I was looking into them for a payment solution that supports withdrawals to credit cards.
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ls-lah 

  What are the Payoneer alternatives I can trust?
If possible, please comment on both those that depend on WireCard AG and those that don't.

This circumstance certainly makes me wanna switch from Payoneer elsewhere.

The only difficulty I see is that many respected freelance marketplaces already signed a contract w/ Payoneer. But perhaps, if alternative offers incoming ACH bank account (associated with Visa/Master for withdrawal), I can do something.

  Thanks!
micheline_a
Hi, You can always use Payment Rails as an alternative www.paymentrails.com
computerist
Sincerely hope they will manage to handle this. I trusted them from the start and have my three years' savings there. What a stupidity.
phasnox
In theory you can withdraw your funds from 5k up. So if you have 8k you can withdraw 3k. The rest is on the "card"
micheline_a
You can use Payment Rails as mass payout alternative!
[dead] Transformify1
Unfortunately, it was not just Payoneer's users that were negatively impacted by FCA suspending the license of Wirecard Solutions in the UK. The users of Curve and various other fintech companies experienced the same.

It comes at no surprise that Wirecard's competitors are already ''hunting'' for Wirecard's and Payoneer's clients.

Transformify, a customer of Payoneer, has been pitched 3 times per day on average last week by a variety of payment providers.

So, which competitors may attract Wirecard's clients? https://www.transformify.org/blog/blogger-s-island/competito...