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warning of Sterling Payment Services Limited sterlingsafepayment.com

C

cyprus123

Active Member
Mar 1, 2018
111
45
28
Tbilisi
#1
Hi,

I just want to let you guys know that sterlingsafepayment.com with company name Sterling Payment Services Limited registered in Hongkong seems to not allow any transfers at the moment.
A friend of mine has a business account there and he can not make any transfers. It looks like his money is gone.

To me it looks like a scam, I can only recommend not to open any accounts there.

Let me know please if you had similar experiences and if you had any success with reporting this to the local authorities.

Thank you!
 
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#2
With a UK-incorporated Fintech, you can detect most scams without much effort via the Companies House (Filing History). If a UK financial institution/emi/payment processor/what-ever filed micro-entity accounts, it's a scam or an unlicensed (and illegal) business. All FIs in the UK must file full accounts.

I'm sure there are some simple ways to detect HK-based FI scams too. But I haven't looked into rules that apply there because 9 out of 10 EMI scams are registered in the UK. Perhaps I should. HK seems like a boiling new hotspot for Fintech scams.

Sterling Safe Payment is an obvious rat nest from a glance at the front page and source HTML (perhaps even from the domain name)
 
Last edited:
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#3
OP for how long has your been using them and do they owe him any amount?
 
#6
Granwasa said:
OP, maybe take a look about this Sterlingsafepayment thread.

They are shady company owned by the same guys of Europay.cz. Scam thread.

In case your friend is still in time, he should immediately put legal pressure.
Click to expand...
I am the official representative of Sterlingsafepayment, We are not a scam - Europay was closed as the license limits were exhausted, all client funds were returned to the owners. If anyone has a problem with this please describe a real case.
 
#8
readin lot's of bad about SterlingSafePayment they lean up another company with SterlingOffshore that also got bad reputation.
 
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#9
@SterlingOleg

Hello Oleg,

Firstly, do you represent the Europay company, SterlingSafePayment, or an individual with affiliation in both? What is the exact business transaction your law firm mediated?

1. Are you sure that the new owner has no affiliation to previous owners? Having extensively looked into this deal, are you sure that the old owner is not setting up a front-man to seek shelter from the consequence of his own naughty actions carried out in the past? What is the attractive aspect of the company - why would anyone from Hong Kong want to buy this shite of a company (sorry for the language).

2. What is the license status of Sterling Payment Services limited? I looked at the web site and found the Money Service license in HK obtained in 2019 which appears authentic. But this Money service license is good for offering remittances and FX. Any hotel wishing to offer a bit of FX can, and does get the same license costing a few thousand HK $. No big deal. Where does the right to offer business bank accounts to clients in the EU come from? It appears that OP of this thread sent money in, but could not send money out, which to me suggests that there's a bank account, or something that substantially constitutes a bank account. What about payment cards? It matters quite a bit. Most notably, what protects the customers from having to endure a legal liquidation process if a regulatory clamp-down occurs? Am I completely crazy to think that this company could undergo mandatory liquidation because it's not licensed for all facets of the business it engages in?
 
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#10
It's really easy. There are no Terms and Conditions on the website and the signup form just points to dead links.

There is no privacy policy, and they are accepting EU customers.

The Log In page doesn't work. It just says "Coming Soon".

My conclusion is a firm avoid. You are giving away your identity to an unknown entity with no agreement in place.

If this isn't a scam, it's just sad and pathetic. Even most scams do a better job at looking legitimate than this clown parade.
 
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#11
Good day! I am a lawyer who helped sell this company and I know the details of the deal. The person who bought the company has absolutely nothing to do with the previous owners. As I already wrote, even the previous owner was not involved in people suffering from him. All clients of Europay received their money, he is not charged, he is not hiding. It was important to clarify all this for the new owner before buying this company. I have already suggested writing a bad case where people suffered - there are no such cases.
Sterling has licence for operating money service (section 30, cap 615) licence no. 17-02-02079 on the basis of which we received SWIFT (STPVHKHH) and correspondent banks work with us.

xzars said:
@SterlingOleg

Hello Oleg,

Firstly, do you represent the Europay company, SterlingSafePayment, or an individual with affiliation in both? What is the exact business transaction your law firm mediated?

1. Are you sure that the new owner has no affiliation to previous owners? Having extensively looked into this deal, are you sure that the old owner is not setting up a front-man to seek shelter from the consequence of his own naughty actions carried out in the past? What is the attractive aspect of the company - why would anyone from Hong Kong want to buy this shite of a company (sorry for the language).

2. What is the license status of Sterling Payment Services limited? I looked at the web site and found the Money Service license in HK obtained in 2019 which appears authentic. But this Money service license is good for offering remittances and FX. Any hotel wishing to offer a bit of FX can, and does get the same license costing a few thousand HK $. No big deal. Where does the right to offer business bank accounts to clients in the EU come from? It appears that OP of this thread sent money in, but could not send money out, which to me suggests that there's a bank account, or something that substantially constitutes a bank account. What about payment cards? It matters quite a bit. Most notably, what protects the customers from having to endure a legal liquidation process if a regulatory clamp-down occurs? Am I completely crazy to think that this company could undergo mandatory liquidation because it's not licensed for all facets of the business it engages in?
Click to expand...
 
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#12
I understand what you are talking about, the new owner will definitely create a new site with the necessary information. Nevertheless, technically, the system has been operating since 2019 and has hundreds of clients.

Sols said:
It's really easy. There are no Terms and Conditions on the website and the signup form just points to dead links.

There is no privacy policy, and they are accepting EU customers.

The Log In page doesn't work. It just says "Coming Soon".

My conclusion is a firm avoid. You are giving away your identity to an unknown entity with no agreement in place.

If this isn't a scam, it's just sad and pathetic. Even most scams do a better job at looking legitimate than this clown parade.
Click to expand...
 
#14
I'm waiting for details from you in the messenger - everything works for us
cyprus123 said:
Hi,

I just want to let you guys know that sterlingsafepayment.com with company name Sterling Payment Services Limited registered in Hongkong seems to not allow any transfers at the moment.
A friend of mine has a business account there and he can not make any transfers. It looks like his money is gone.

To me it looks like a scam, I can only recommend not to open any accounts there.

Let me know please if you had similar experiences and if you had any success with reporting this to the local authorities.

Thank you!
Click to expand...
 
#15
@SterlingOleg

I'm quite impressed. From what looks like a banana business that would have difficulties getting a basic EMI account for its own use, Sterling is integrated with SWIFT and working with high street correspondends based off of a budget Money Service license from HK.

No accusation of wrong-doing from me.

Last questions:
1. Where is the core business activity based? The address in HK is only for correspondence according to corporate registry.
2. Who gives the accounts for Sterling customers? Does Standard bank issue them based off of a correspondent banking agreement? Surely, the HK Money Service license is not a right to issue EMI or Bank accounts, even if it got you integrated with SWIFT.
 
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#16
SterlingOleg said:
I understand what you are talking about, the new owner will definitely create a new site with the necessary information. Nevertheless, technically, the system has been operating since 2019 and has hundreds of clients.
Click to expand...

And you've put 100's of your clients on a customary hold for over a month, telling bs like "we'll fix it tomorrow, next Monday, I promise you", didn't you?

Haven't your clients been cut off from internet banking for 2 weeks recently, with highly unprofessional behavior of your IT team not being able to even fix the 2FA issue alone for several days?

The owner of your entity may differ, however, day to day operations continue to be managed by the same person, Viacheslav Chariev, isn't that true?

xzars said:
@SterlingOleg

1. Where is the core business activity based? The address in HK is only for correspondence according to corporate registry.
2. Who gives the accounts for Sterling customers? Does Standard bank issue them based off of a correspondent banking agreement? Surely, the HK Money Service license is not a right to issue EMI or Bank accounts, even if it got you integrated with SWIFT.
Click to expand...

Their group's main office is located in Moscow, Russia. Their previous correspondent was an Azerbaidjani bank and their new one is Standard Bank (Namibia branch) - both a complete joke IMHO.
 
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#18
@cyprus123 - thanks for that bit of info. I see it's nearly a month later and considering that you haven't posted any updates, I'm guessing the issue with your friend's transfer still has not been resolved. I think I'll stay away from Sterling for the time being.
 
#20
cyprus123 said:
Sorry for not giving an update yet.

The issue has been solved, but I have the feeling that this provider is not a trustful option.
Click to expand...
How did you solve the problem if you want to share some information?
 
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