Bankoff service is one of the most popular and promising startups in Azerbaijan, which allows you to create virtual payment cards to which holders can transfer their money through bots in the messenger.
After such global payment systems such as Visa and Mastercard ceased to serve Russian citizens due to sanctions, Russians began to actively use Bankoff virtual cards in search of “workarounds”. According to the information of the Coindesk portal, specializing in cryptocurrencies and virtual banking, on May 3, Bankoff clients were notified that their virtual cards were suspended because VISA, as well as Stripe, registered in Silicon Valley (USA), tore all relations from BankOFF. P>
“Today we received a letter from Visa and Stripe that in connection with a large number of users and transactions from Russia, Bankoff Card virtual cards are suspended, – in particular, the message widespread by Bankoff. – This means that this means that Our cards are no longer supported by payment systems either offline or online. At the moment, we are trying to access our funds frozen in the US accounts. “
It is still unknown which bank uses Bankoff in the USA, as well as how Azerbaijani startup interacted with Stripe. Visa and Stripe abstained comments on this subject.
The Coindesk portal talked with the five owners of sets claiming that their money was “stuck” on Bankoff accounts. Some reported that they successfully used this service outside of Russia before to pay for online subscriptions and even food in ordinary stores.
“I paid for some services in Europe and Turkey, as well as food through ApplePay in a grocery store abroad,” said Alexander Kotin, a Lachain blockchain product product that used Bankoff. According to him, like many other users, he lost only a small amount, about 60 dollars.
At the same time, some users suggested on online forums that Bankoff could appropriate users’ money because it never published letters received from Visa and Stripe and did not provide any updates since May 3.
Several users informed Coindesk that the service used to work normally and allowed them to send payments through virtual cards. However, in the comments on the reports on the Bankoff blog, users often complained about the multi -day expectation of the availability of their deposits.
“Many believe that Bankoff was a typical Internet mode, – said Anton Zhdanov, general director of the virtual reality startup 360max. – But I personally consider myself an advanced user, but I have not found obvious evidence that this is a fraud.”