Some Truth About ePinoyload.com

     Even before my dad's stroke last year, I spend approximately 60% of a year in my hometown. I love the quiet and the simplicity of life in the province, and except for the occasional "technology glitches", I have no complains being at home. When I say "technology glitches," I meant to say slow Internet connection or sometimes no signal at all, and yep -- not being able to find an e-loading station in the middle of the night when I desperately needed to reload my prepaid phone or Internet. That's why when Sam, my dad's therapist, mentioned an e-loading business opportunity from UPN (http://powerup.unlimitedpesonetwork.com), I said, why not? I get to earn a bit and then I can load myself anytime, anywhere. Such fun, right?

     I have no full knowledge how things work with UPN but I get that they've built their business platform around ePinoyload, because when I started encountering problems and he can no longer address my queries, Angelo (the guy who introduced Sam to the business) referred me to the ePinoyload website (http://epinoyload.com) and sir Jessie (the dealer from whom I am listed under) gave me a number of an ePinoyload staff who can accommodate my complains.

     To be fair, ePinoyload is an excellent business idea and I see in it a lot of potential. Imagine being able to load all the popular cellular networks in the Philippines: Globe, Smart, Touch Mobile, Talk N Text, Sun, even Red and PLDT -- all at the convenience of one phone and you even get to use your old number/simcard. You just send a formatted text to a designated number (4483), and except for the confirmation message which gets delayed at times, the load arrives quite instantly to the client. And I heard just recently that they are expanding to other areas of the business like travel booking and insurance.

     Anyway, all have been great with ePinoyload until March 30, 2014 when I noticed something peculiar about the confirmation message from 4483. Here's the screenshot of the reply from 4483 when I tried loading 30 pesos to a Smart number:

Loading 30 will NOT deduct P745.07 from P2,139.01, right? P717.00 was apparently stolen.

A few things on the screenshot:

• If you will notice, there's a "Network out of order" error but I've learned to ignore that because the transaction gets through all the time even with that error. And if you resend the text, they have a filter to check if you wanna repeat the transaction. Very thoughtful actually, so you won't accidentally repeat any transaction.
  


• I always do a mental computation once the confirmation text arrives just to check if everything is good. It don't require a Math genius to realize that loading someone 30 does not make 2,139.01 return just 1,393.94. So I texted sir Jessie (my dealer) and he gave me a number to whom I can forward my problem. The person who answered my call said that P717.00 was taken from my account. At that time I have no access on my webtool nor do I know about it. The webtool is an online portal for users like me to log on to so I can check the transactions I've incurred, perform additional functions and whatnot. At that moment, I just thought of it as a simple glitch on the balance computation. P200.00 was returned to me that day, and the rest of the amount (P517.00) was returned a day later. 

     With that incident, I became more vigilant on my transactions. I wait for the confirmation message and compute (as always) if the balance reflected was correct. And then came April 26, 2014, another tiny error but a tiny error that wouldn't go unnoticed:

Loading 15 deducted P44.03 from my loadwallet? Pfftt!

     I would certainly not have discovered the little difference under any normal circumstance but given the incident a few weeks back and my heightened sense of vigilance, I saw that the balance returned was not right. Loading someone P15.00 will not deduct 44.03 from 2,919.68. Clearly, P30.00 was again missing. With this new development, I immediately contacted Angelo (our contact guy from UPN) and told him about the issue. We even had a heated argument about the matter (security issues mostly) and he suggested that I change my sim/number and he will register the new number for no additional cost. He said that "hockers" are accessing the accounts and stealing from us. He instructed me to access my webtool and change my password. And so I did. And boy am I in for a bigger surprise.

     When I checked my account and investigated on the previous missing amount, here's what I found out (click the images to view them in a readable size):

09461458820 apparently has access to my account and stole a total of P717.00 from my loadwallet last March 30.

FIRST: On March 30, 2014 at 4:47pm, 09461458820 accessed my account and transferred P417.00 to 09089737931. (Refer to the image above).

SECOND: On March 30, 2014 at 4:50pm, barely 3 minutes later, 09461458820 transferred P300.00 to Tessie Pericon with number 09213659630. (Refer to the image above).

09461458820 gently took P30.00 from my loadwallet. Around this time, I decided to open my webtool and investigate further.

THIRD: On April 26, 2014 at 4:15pm, 09461458820 strikes again but subtly this time and just transferred P30.00 to 09461529281. (Refer to the screenshot above).

     On the third incident, I already have access to my webtool and changed the password. I've thought for a while that I am now safe from the loadwallet thief because my account has a new password but I really had no idea that I am, yet again, will be a victim to this loadwallet robbery. Four days later, after checking my account at ePinoyload.com, here's what I saw:

09461458820 strikes again and took a total of P1,000 from my loadwallet on April 30. Wow!

FOURTH: On April 30, 2014 at 6:42am (I'm probably still asleep at this hour), 09461458820 took P500.00 from my loadwallet and transferred it to 09461529278 (NPC-063-140318-0542604545 09123470594). (Refer to the screenshot above).

FIFTH: On April 30, 2014 at 8:16am, 09461458820 stole P500.00 from my loadwallet and again transferred it to 09461529278 (NPC-063-140318-0542604545 09123470594). (Refer to the screenshot above).

     WOW! Yeah, these people have access to my ePinoyload account and can do whatever they want.

     Apparently the same thing happened to my dealer, sir Jessie, who also lost some amount from his account on that same week. When I called him up, he gave me a number to contact and Jason (the guy from ePinoyload.com who answered the call) after asking me of the time and from which number the amount was taken, acknowledged that truly, a thousand pesos was debited from my loadwallet. I called him at approximately 9am and around lunch, he called me back to inform me that the number  09461458820 was already suspended. He told me further that he had forwarded the matter to their admin and that the admin have forwarded the issue to their specialists. I called them a day after and then texted them earlier today at lunch (May 5, 2014) for a follow-up.

     A few hours after I texted them, sir BJ from ePinoyload.com called to inform me that the missing amount was refunded. We actually had an interesting conversation and along the way, some of my issues were addressed -- from what I was told during the call and based on the reply to a comment I posted on ePinoyload website.

SECURITY - Security for me means only those who are authorized to view my account can do so and actually do anything with it. That is mostly me, right? I am not familiar with the structure, I am yet to educate myself how the system works but I will be happy to know that my bit of money is safe. Sir BJ said that what happened was just an isolated case and that they've already remedied the situation. They've also taken measures to prevent them from happening again.

SYSTEM DOWNTIME - the usual problem (that I've already learned to ignore) is the delay on the confirmation message, which, actually is not a problem seeing that the load almost instantly gets to the client. But recently, there have been longer delays and I'm not quite sure whether to wait longer or to repeat the process. I'm not sure whether to give back the client's money so they can go somewhere else to load or to ask them to wait for a bit more. I oftentimes just rely on my phone to load, and I access my webtool only when absolutely necessary. I've found out that I can load thru the webtool when I wasn't able to load thru my phone. So I asked (thru the website) if they can at least inform us through text if there are system problems so at least we know what to do and how to respond to clients. A bit of a heads up about system issues will surely be appreciated.

     All in all, I can fairly say that although there were problems encountered, these problems were addressed properly. I felt at ease to know that our issues (which are of course their issues too) are not being set aside. As for the people responsible for the crime, sir BJ said that they have doubled their security and are continuously being cautious because these people are no amateurs. Indeed, I agree that they are brilliant thieves who will try find a way to make easy money.

    I was not able to ring the number but it didn't stop me from sending a text to 09461458820 who apparently belong to one Jessie Boy Juarez. I apologize for the label, that was the name that popped to my head that instant while saving the number:

Yeah, I was furious, LOL! Seriously, who does that?

     And to the recipient of the last two stolen loadwallet amount, I was able to ring the number but nobody's answering so I sent this text before it became unreachable:

Of course, the recipient was a willing accessory to the crime and deserves a bit of my mind too. ☺

     There's no absolute guarantee that what happened won't happen again but I'm thankful that ePinoyload staff acted the way they did. I'm still hanging on and will continue to be a part of ePinoyload because I have this renewed faith in them. The possibilities and opportunities cannot be ignored. I was just pissed by the reality that there are people who would take every chance to take advantage of others and exploit a situation because they've discovered its vulnerability. We already have too many politicians stealing from us, please don't add up to that list. Like what I've said on one of my tweets, if you've been raised by your parents to be honest and sincere, it will definitely hurt to know that there are people who can steal and fool others in a heartbeat. My mom would return a single centavo if she knows it isn't hers. I would too.

      Until my next wandering everybody! Will post update on here if ever there are new stuff about ePinoyload, good and bad, because you guys deserve to know.

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UPDATE (May 17, 2014)

     I kinda hoped that what happened didn't happen, but today, the loadwallet thief strikes again. When I loaded someone earlier this morning, the balance returned by 4483 was a bit weird. Here's a screenshot:

Surely, loading someone 20 will not deduct 183.71 from my loadwallet,right?

     So after lunch, I immediately logged in to my ePinoyload webtool to check who did the deed and here's what I found (click the image to view in a readable size):

In this screenshot, 09461458820 did it again and stole a total of P165.00 from my loadwallet in three separate instances.

     I was just able to post the update when I realized that a few more amount was stolen from my ePinoyload account. Take a look at the screenshot:

      I thought ePinoyload already suspended 09461458820 but this proves that the thief still has access to my loadwallet account. Whoever is behind this number stole a total of P615.00 from me today in six separate instances starting at 2:16 am. Early bird huh!

2:16am - P15.00
2:24am - P100.00
5:20am - P50.00
5:30pm - P50.00
6:30pm - P200.00
6:44pm - P200.00

     All of these were stolen by (09461458820): NPC-063-140305-8417678510 09204518XXX (Mobile) (44284279) (I've edited the last three digits of my mobile) and transferred to (09468257108): NPC-063-140411-7899916314 09288615176 (Mobile) (44284280).

     I can't imagine the guts these people have and how thick skinned they are. They must be so desperate to steal from little people like me.  I actually didn't plan to use the number anymore, I just left some amount for ePinoyload to take back because they've refunded more than what was stolen from me on the previous incident. Now the thief took most of it, there's nothing left in my loadwallet. ePinoyload.com peeps! -- please do something about this. This is getting really serious and will absolutely ruin the reputation that you guys worked so hard for. Make your system more SECURE.

     See you on my next update!

tags: problems with UPN, Jessie Boy Juarez, problems with ePinoyload.com, issues with ePinoyload.com, advantages and disadvantages of ePinoyload.com