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Offshore Pro / International Wealth scam

GF150

New member
Sep 18, 2024
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Brussels
Has anyone else been recently scammed by Offshore Pro / International Wealth who sold "anonymous" Union Pay
prepaid cards that worked only a couple of weeks and have been useless since May ? They say the reason is some
system security issue they are trying to solve but, of course, the narrative is hard to take seriously after 3+ months.
 
You get what you pay for.

"Anonymous" UP card from PH-based PSP is, by default, risky solution that can go off-rails ANYTIME. It works until it works.

Whilst having no particular personal experience with offshorewealth/offshore pro (heard a couple of very diverse and mixed reviews in the past), I would question your approach to calling out them as "scammers" - you can't really call out "offshore CSP" like OffshoreWealth for "scamming customers" since they do not provide any financial services themselves, but rather just resell solutions according to demands of their high risk clientelle.

On a separate note, I've heard that Volet (ex-advcash) also had a fair share of problems with their Philippines-based Union Pay issuer in the past few years, usually lasting for a few months before those problems being solved/funds refunded. This may give you a general idea on the reliability of those kinds of solutions and determine actual fault share on the part of International Wealth.

Bad marketing targeted at high risk clientelle? Yeah. High-risk product from FSP in a low-grade jurisdiction? Yeah... Excuses by sales monkeys to reduce pressure on themselves? Totally possible.

Outright scam? No, you should've known what you're signing up for.
 
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You get what you pay for.
Quite right but do you suggest that the price paid wasn't high enough ? I wouldn't have paid that price for a normal card.
Although I have no trouble whatsoever with any Administration and, besides, nobody is after me for any debt or other dispute, I value privacy and don't want to be spied at everywhere I go and about everything I do.

I would question your approach to calling out them as "scammers"
How would you qualify a merchant that sells something to you that doesn't work the way it should and will do nothing to help you out ? Someone who consistently lie to you just to buy time and scam other people meanwhile ? Generally speaking, someone who knows (or should know) what they sell doesn't work. Offshore Pro and International Wealth aren't just random Companies, instantly come out of the blue. They have been around for some time.

...just resell solutions according to demands of their high risk clientelle.
I beg your pardon but this is just not true. This was a standard product, i.e. for everyone and not a bespoke solution. By no means would I qualify myself as a high-risk person.

Outright scam? No, you should've known what you're signing up for.
Come on! This is very easy a thing to say .... afterwards. You can apply that to any case brought up on this forum. We're all taking risks on seeking freedom. Not exposing scammers is increasing the risk for anyone else, What do you think of that?
 
Bad marketing targeted at high risk clientelle? Yeah. High-risk product from FSP in a low-grade jurisdiction?
Incidentally, can that, by any chance, mean: you should have chosen a better solution, totally risk-free, such as:

"360 Licensing, Compliance, Banking & Business Intelligence Private Consulting for FinTech, Crypto and HNWI's
There's no one size fits all solution - tailored, confidential, expert advisory and unique propositions
Contact Me at | Telegram t.me/compliancecircle | DM Here on OCT for Signal, Session, Jabber etc."

Who can tell Scylla from Charybdis ?

P.S. Sorry, in my previous post a "will" is missing, i.e. "... Someone who will consistently lie...." Can't edit it:(:(
 
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Quite right but do you suggest that the price paid wasn't high enough ? I wouldn't have paid that price for a normal card.
Although I have no trouble whatsoever with any Administration and, besides, nobody is after me for any debt or other dispute, I value privacy and don't want to be spied at everywhere I go and about everything I do.
Ok, well, so you went searching for "anonymous no name debit card"... and paid respective premium just to have no name recorded on your
I would question your approach to calling out them as "scammers"
How would you qualify a merchant that sells something to you that doesn't work the way it should and will do nothing to help you out ? Someone who consistently lie to you just to buy time and scam other people meanwhile ? Generally speaking, someone who knows (or should know) what they sell doesn't work. Offshore Pro and International Wealth aren't just random Companies, instantly come out of the blue. They have been around for some time.
Most likely they just rely on you information they get from the card provider itself. Would not have been defensive, if not have seen how Valet (ex-advcash) handled the same issue with Union Pay cards and they were issued by PH-based issuer as well, so can correlate between two situations based on my industry intelligence, that's it.

Again, you get what you pay for. Think again under different angle - you paid for "anonymous debit card" from a 3rd world country issuer, it doesn't matter how much you've paid for that at the mercy of reseller such as OffshoreWealth.

On the issue on who they're - exactly. They're here fore some time, mixed reviews, but they're not just an outright scam operation
...just resell solutions according to demands of their high risk clientelle.
I beg your pardon but this is just not true. This was a standard product, i.e. for everyone and not a bespoke solution. By no means would I qualify myself as a high-risk person.
That's completely true, my friend. OffshoreWealth used to mostly serve ex-USSR clients with "complex wealth sources"

Their marketing strategy is far from being aimed at totally clean clients.
Outright scam? No, you should've known what you're signing up for.
Come on! This is very easy a thing to say .... afterwards. You can apply that to any case brought up on this forum. We're all taking risks on seeking freedom. Not exposing scammers is increasing the risk for anyone else, What do you think of that?
Did you try to contact issuer of the card? Does your legal agreement with issuer imply it's some sort of OffshoreWealth venture, or branding?
 
Incidentally, can that, by any chance, mean: you should have chosen a better solution, totally risk-free, such as:

"360 Licensing, Compliance, Banking & Business Intelligence Private Consulting for FinTech, Crypto and HNWI's
There's no one size fits all solution - tailored, confidential, expert advisory and unique propositions
Contact Me at | Telegram t.me/compliancecircle | DM Here on OCT for Signal, Session, Jabber etc."

Who can tell Scylla from Charybdis ?

P.S. Sorry, in my previous post a "will" is missing, i.e. "... Someone who will consistently lie...." Can't edit it:(:(
No, I don't offer risk-free solutions, as there are none totally risk-free as you know, only tailoring degrees of risk to the needs of my clients :)
 
Most likely they just rely on you information they get from the card provider itself. Would not have been defensive, if not have seen how Valet (ex-advcash) handled the same issue with Union Pay cards and they were issued by PH-based issuer as well, so can correlate between two situations based on my industry intelligence, that's it.
Not quite sure what you mean if it isn't "everybody should first ask me whatever they intend to undertake" :)
I can also follow you in your statement re. the ex-USSR clients and their complex business. It's always more or less risky to do business with someone you don't know. If nobody would be willing to take any risk you would have no clients, right ?
Mind, I didn't come here only to complain but also to find out if there were many others caught in this scam, because that is a scam. When you have in hand a card UnionPay, an authentic one, of course, and it works OK you think the deal is fair, because it could have been worse, no need to say that. So, was the scam more elaborate, i.e. the card stops working when you put some more money on it, that is still to be investigated.
Did you try to contact issuer of the card? Does your legal agreement with issuer imply it's some sort of OffshoreWealth venture, or branding?
Yes, I did but they all tell the same story - a security issue that it takes time to solve, etc. Well, you can believe it for some time but eventually enough is enough. In fact, there are several layers but the end issuer (The Bank) is supposed to be a large UP card issuer and I'd rather think of some contract breech between Offshore Pro / International Wealth and the Bank, the latter is not willing to disclose and they have agreed on a narrative.
No, the card doesn't look like a sub-brand. It looks just like an ordinary UP card with no name on it. However, at the Bank it's registered as "No Name" and, consequently, the Bank, yet knowing my identity, does not consider it's abnormal to issue a "No-name" card. The supposed breech must be elsewhere.
 
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Not quite sure what you mean if it isn't "everybody should first ask me whatever they intend to undertake" :)
I can also follow you in your statement re. the ex-USSR clients and their complex business. It's always more or less risky to do business with someone you don't know. If nobody would be willing to take any risk you would have no clients, right ?
Mind, I didn't come here only to complain but also to find out if there were many others caught in this scam, because that is a scam. When you have in hand a card UnionPay, an authentic one, of course, and it works OK you think the deal is fair, because it could have been worse, no need to say that. So, was the scam more elaborate, i.e. the card stops working when you put some more money on it, that is still to be investigated.
It's not just an "authentic Union Pay card". You can have "authentic Visa/UnionPay/Masercard" in your hand, but ultimately security and fate of your funds is not down to a card scheme, but to the particular issuer. Of course, there are scheme due diligence, scheme operational rules etc. but in the end of the day the don't guarantee anything on the part of issuer credibility, solvency, risk appetite and whatever goes from there.

So when you're placing an order for product marketed as "anonymous Union Pay card", your main argument for the trust you placed was... the fact that it is issued through Union Pay network? Did you take issuer credibility, licensing status, public profile in consideration beforehand?

In my professional lifetime, I've seen countless financial institutions that had SWIFT, card scheme memberships, partnerships etc. and in the essence it has no impact on their operational risk appetite. Believe it or not, when the issuer is comfortable with products issued being marketed by its partners as "anonymous" "no name" it usually has quite high risk tolerance and you can also guess that by looking at their tariffs.

High risk financial products only work until they work, and they tend to exist only for a certain time. They're here in place to satisfy needs of specific client base, "normal" or low risk clients just go elsewhere - to their local banks/global fintechs like revolut and wise since they need none of that "no name anonymous" stuff.

Respectively, offshore agents and intermediaries sell those solutions while they work, knowing they can stop working anytime, just because we live in funny times. That's the sad truth.

Yes, I did but they all tell the same story - a security issue that it takes time to solve, etc. Well, you can believe it for some time but eventually enough is enough. In fact, there are several layers but the end issuer (The Bank) is supposed to be a large UP card issuer and I'd rather think of some contract breech between Offshore Pro / International Wealth and the Bank, the latter is not willing to disclose and they have agreed on a narrative.
No, the card doesn't look like a sub-brand. It looks just like an ordinary UP card with no name on it. However, at the Bank it's registered as "No Name" and, consequently, the Bank, yet knowing my identity, does not consider it's abnormal to issue a "No-name" card. The supposed breech must be elsewhere.
May be. Or may not be. There can be a very complex network of underlying faciliators. I've just tried to explain you how those "anonymous" financial instruments work nowadays. It's 2024, not 2007, mate.
 
Respectively, offshore agents and intermediaries sell those solutions while they work, knowing they can stop working anytime, just because we live in funny times. That's the sad truth.
Yes, I'm with you and that's where the scam lies. So, basically, you take the risk to come across "hard scammers" who take your money and don't send you your card or "soft scammers" that send you a card that work just a few weeks and they know that.
However, both are scammers. You put some money on stake. You can lose it. OK, but just saying nothing is stupid. At least you should warn the other people with whom you have something in common, shouldn't you ?
Did you take issuer credibility, licensing status, public profile in consideration beforehand?
Of course, but that didn't help. Do you really think that the folk that advertise on this very site are risk-free ? Have a look at some of my posts. When I ask them a sensible question they will not reply or will go on with some smoky ready-made speech that says nothing in term of information. Everything is more or less risky when you don't follow the crowd and even when you do.

By the way, you call yourself a knowledgeable professional. OK, so be it. You even don't say you are risk-free. Nevertheless, just imagine the situation: would it be reasonable to pay you 1 000 bucks for telling me how to avoid losing $500 in a scam scheme ? It would be something like the car dealer who loses $500 on each sale but hopes to catch up on quantity !
Every move is risky and the only thing to do when you're scammed is to share your experience with the community. At least, that will hopefully help somebody.
 
The price is still on the sites of International Wealth (however, there's a notice "Service no more available") and Offshore Pro (no such notice). They belong to the same group. It's in the 600 € for ~2 years of validity (3-4 weeks in reality :-)) plus shipping fees.
Plus, they promised that only shipping fees would apply on a subsequent renewal.
"Les promesses n'engagent que ceux qui y croient" (Promises are only binding on those who believe in them) :)
I know AlexPCS, thank you.