Transferwise closed 3 Business accounts for me

[javier]

Hello Everyone,


I just had Transferwise close 3 business accounts for me... 2 of them on the same day and the third one
was closed today.

The first 2 accounts had a lot of activity on them but the third one was quite new with very little activity.

I wondered if anyone had the same issue in the past week, or if you have any suggestions what might
have been the reason.

Both accounts would received funds from C2B and B2B for a few months already and both past a verification
process where I was asked to provide Invoices, website and other details.


Thanks.

 

[steve12]

Hello Everyone,


I just had Transferwise close 3 business accounts for me... 2 of them on the same day and the third one
was closed today.

The first 2 accounts had a lot of activity on them but the third one was quite new with very little activity.

I wondered if anyone had the same issue in the past week, or if you have any suggestions what might
have been the reason.

Both accounts would received funds from C2B and B2B for a few months already and both past a verification
process where I was asked to provide Invoices, website and other details.


Thanks.

What is your business about (from which industry)? Which company do you have (i mean jurisdiction)?

 

[javier]

What is your business about (from which industry)? Which company do you have (i mean jurisdiction)?

Hey,

1 was a BPO (Callcenter) second was Digital marketing and third was IT services.
All incorporated in UK

 

[KJK]

1 was a BPO (Callcenter) second was Digital marketing and third was IT services.

Call center and marketing for what exactly? Who are your business partners? What do they do?

 

[Martin Everson]

All incorporated in UK

That's worrying.

Are you resident in UK also? I realize some FI's are insisting director and company must be based in same location to hold business accounts.....but not TW please .

 

[Nyep]

I just had Transferwise close 3 business accounts for me

Were you the registered UBO on all of these accounts? No darks?

 

[steve12]

Hey,

1 was a BPO (Callcenter) second was Digital marketing and third was IT services.
All incorporated in UK

If your companies were LP/LLP (and you do not conduct your business activity in UK) than it could be explained that they trying to rid of from such jurisdictions (since they are considered as an offshore).

 

[javier]

Hi All, thank you for your response.

Non of the UBO's were UK residents and non were darks.

All incoming and outgoing wires were C2B and B2B to either service providers directly related to the same industry of the company or general service providers, also we did send random people funds.

All companies are private ltd in UK.

I did use one laptop but different IP everytime to log each different account, I have a feeling that this what turned me in... because all accounts were closed either on the same day or 3 days after,

I am trying to see how I can avoid it next time...

I did see on the deactivation reasons that transferwise can decide to close your account if they suspect its a duplicate account, I just wonder how they can detect this.

 

[Martin Everson]

I did use one laptop but different IP everytime to log each different account, I have a feeling that this what turned me in... because all accounts were closed either on the same day or 3 days after,

I'm slow but why using different ip's everytime to log into each account?

 

[Sols]

I did use one laptop but different IP everytime to log each different account, I have a feeling that this what turned me in... because all accounts were closed either on the same day or 3 days after,

I am trying to see how I can avoid it next time...

I did see on the deactivation reasons that transferwise can decide to close your account if they suspect its a duplicate account, I just wonder how they can detect this.

I'm curious about the answer to Martin Everson's question, but to address your concern: it's quite trivial to identify the same device being used even if you change IP. Look into device fingerprinting. The fingerprint is independent of IP address, and can in many cases be made independent of browser (although less accurate).

You can take steps to blur your fingerprint or avoid being fingerprinted through privacy-enhancing settings in your browser and plugins, but doing so can in and of itself be a red flag; i.e., the company will wonder why/what you're hiding.

I'm not sure what tool specifically TW use but there are dozens of service providers that fingerprint devices. Some even break through VPNs, usually via DNS leak or WebRTC leaks.

 

[Martin Everson]

If he used a VPN to connect then Transferwise almost certainly uses VPN detection software

 

[Martin Everson]

The fact that you take such measures + your determination on figuring out a way to stay undetected gives me the impression that Transferwise is right and you're involved in practices that goes against their T&C. No offence, just an assumption based on what you've said.

My spiderman senses tells me your 100% correct. He is 100% up to no good. He can scream at me all he wants but it just sounds dodgy to me so TW made right call.

 

[javier]

Hi everyone,

I am using these companies to disguise other activity because my line of business is not supported by transferwise, but this doesnt change the fact that payments sent from TW to the major providers are related as i mentioned before.

My determination to remain undetected is in order to be able to keep these accounts open while using all of them from the same computer, so to do so i used a vpn to log in from a different country everytime and constantly logging in from the same country for that specific account.
I also used different browser for each account if it makes any difference...

SOLS, thanks for the info, I am guessing thats what happened although i am not 100% sure.

Anyway I am trying to receive some answers from them to see if they will provide any information although i am not counting on it.

If anyone has something to add ill be glad to hear, and thanks to everyone who participated.

If ill have any insights ill make sure to update here.

 

[Martin Everson]

I am using these companies to disguise other activity because my line of business is not supported by transferwise,

Well there you go. They made right call.

, so to do so i used a vpn to log in from a different country everytime and constantly logging in from the same country for that specific account.

TW have almost certainly VPN detection software.

 

[Martin Everson]

It might be interesting to start a group with some people involved in the HR sector so we could share ideas and information privately. If you're interested you can send me a pm.

Thats a great idea. They have the Mentor Group already however.

 

[Bmw850]

I would say "beginner mistake".
You just need to register through a smartphone ( 40 euros nowdays ). 1 company / smartphone and you are ok.

 

[Bmw850]

@boko As martin said, the mentor group is for those matters.
But i prefer this old sentence : ' the best secrets are the ones we never say"

 

[Sols]

I would say "beginner mistake".
You just need to register through a smartphone ( 40 euros nowdays ). 1 company / smartphone and you are ok.

I've seen this method being honed in on by some app makers. Slowly. If the customer installs an app, you can get a lot of information about the device that can help figure this out. The first is device location or signs of location spoofing.

Second is to look at the type of phone. The more expensive the phone, the less risky it is. iPhone XS Max? Low risk. Cheap, non-flagship Android? Higher risk, especially for something like opening a corporate account.

Beyond that you can look at whatever the operating system lets you once the customer has given you the right permissions. If the customer is messing with the permissions (i.e. on a rooted Android), that can be detected and be deemed a risk factor.

Not saying everyone is doing it. Just that it's probably something apps which deal with financial services may moving towards as a part of their risk management.

 

[TurnedToRobot]

Yes and available for everyone who is willing to spend 100 eu. Starting an invite only Wickr group chat might be a better and more secure alternative.

If you have a problem with this forum then take a hide I would say. If you think you can come here ask people to contact you and build a group from the forum users here it's against the forum rules and I wonder why @Admin didn't banned you yet!

To use an VPS or expensive smart phone like the iPhone XS is great but even better is to tunnel to an external server which is in a different location and country. For each account you will have a unique identiy which even the best anti fraud software will be able to detect for obvious reasons.

What you want to do is to start to study computer security, so go further to VPS / cloudservers and then move on to operate your business accounts, if you are doing well the accounts will live for ages.

 

[Bmw850]

I've seen this method being honed in on by some app makers. Slowly. If the customer installs an app, you can get a lot of information about the device that can help figure this out. The first is device location or signs of location spoofing.

Second is to look at the type of phone. The more expensive the phone, the less risky it is. iPhone XS Max? Low risk. Cheap, non-flagship Android? Higher risk, especially for something like opening a corporate account.

Beyond that you can look at whatever the operating system lets you once the customer has given you the right permissions. If the customer is messing with the permissions (i.e. on a rooted Android), that can be detected and be deemed a risk factor.

Not saying everyone is doing it. Just that it's probably something apps which deal with financial services may moving towards as a part of their risk management.

You are right. There is ways to do a lot of thing, but I guess the full description would took better place in mentor group.