Ecurrency

Like Liberty Reserve, Webmoney is one of the biggest players in e-currency industry, but it has a different market. Among Russian-speaking users this payment system is popular same as Paypal in US, and looks like they really trying to become “Russian Paypal”. This e-currency prohibits to use it for HYIPs, MLM, the system is very far from anonymous and it´s also prohibited to exchange WM to 99% of other e-currencies – as you can see, Webmoney is very different from type of system, that is usually is called “ecurrency”. But let´s start from the beginning…

Webmoney is one of the oldest e-currencies – its history was started from the year 1998. First it was completely anonymous, first users received bonuses in USD to their accounts, and was used mainly by few “earning” websites similar to autosurfs. Little later this payment system became widely used by different types of fraudsters, carders and etc, because it was completely anonymous, popular within Russian-speaking auditory and easy to cash-out. Webmoney did not liked such popularity, so they started to add more and more verifications. Now it’s almost impossible to use this system without sending your ID, telephone number and etc. The good thing is that for example if someone will steal your account access, he will not be able to outexchange it fast, so you will have time to stop him. Because of such cases in 2009 Webmoney prohibited to exchange their currency to most other payment systems and in 2010 they also prohibited users to do in- and out- exchanges to 3rd parties (for example, you can outexchange WM to Western Union that will be sent to your name, to somebody else – not). Of course it is not convenient for many users, but is good for system security. As I said before, system is very popular, it claims to have more than 10 million users and few thousands new registrations daily. Daily turnout in system is huge too, WMT claims that it´s about 20-30 million USD.

Every WM account have passport, that shows level of user’s verification. The basic types of passports are:

Alias Passport – the lowest level of WebMoney passports issued by default to any new user after registration. It’s anonymous, and now it’s almost impossible to do any business with such type of passport without upgrading it to next one.

Formal passport – issued to a WebMoney Transfer user after entering his/her personal data at the verification center website. You can more or less freely use WM with such passport, but more likely that you’ll have also to upload your ID scan at http://passport.wmtransfer.com/ website. Usually it’s enough for most users, but if you are planning to have many operations and widely use WM in your business, personal passport will be best choice.

Personal/merchant passport – issued after personal meeting with one of systems registrars (system agent with registrar passport, that will check your ID with details in your WM-passport and probably will ask few questions about aims of your use of webmoney), or after sending notarized documents to verification center. This passport is a must for any serious business with WMT, they will not even include your site to their catalogue without it.

Registrar passport – issued in Moscow, after meeting with WMT manager. You will have to make deposit of 2000 USD, and your account need to have at least 1 year history and business-level of 100 (will explain what this means later). If you will be qualified, you will have right to issue personal passports in your area and earn commission for every passport. I have to say, that it’s very hard to get such passport, you are also required to have stable WM-related business and be known by WMT manager. It’s highest from publicly available passports, and for 99.99% of users just personal or even formal passport will be enough.

There are also other types of wm-passports, but they are not so important for most users. If you are interested you can see full list here. There is also a special service, named arbitrage, that is something like “webmoney police” (also acting like “judges” and etc). You can address to this service support in case of hack or fraud, and if you complain fast after being hacked/ripped/etc, they can help you to return your money. This service sometimes is locking unverified accounts, that are looking suspicious, and freezing them unless the user will receive higher level passport. If you are not doing something criminal, most likely that you will not face account block and etc, but there are pretty much users claiming that they were locked and even blacklisted without obvious reason. Anyway, WM will never appropriate someone’s money even after blacklist, that is called “suspending of maintenance”, user have right to receive his funds to bank account, registered to his name. In case of using fake name, he will have to verify himself first. So, even if you will have problems with WMT, your money will not be lost in any case.

Every WM account have its own 12-digits number, that is called WMID. Inside your account you can make subaccounts for different currencies, that are called «purses». You can have as many purses, as you need, and for sending money to someone you will need to know his purse number (you can not send money directly to WMID!). There are the following types of purses:
Z (wmz) – for storing equivalents of US dollar
E (wme) – for EUROs
G (wmg) – gold grams
R (wmr) – russian rubles
C and D – this purses are used for loan(credit) operations, in few words can say that they are showing, how many you are owing to your counteragents and/or how many they do owe you.
U, B, Y (wmu, wmb, wmy) – rarely used ex-USSR currencies

All balances are separated from each other, and if you need to realize any currency exchange, you will have to use exchanger or internal “Exchange engine”, that looks like some stock market (for example if you need to change your EUR to USD, you can either add your wme-wmz bid, or use someone’s existing wmz-wme bid).

All transactions in system are instant and cannot be reversed. But in case of fraud you can ask arbitrage to lock beneficiary’s account, and if you will provide proof, they will allow beneficiary send money only to your account until you will remove your claim. So, if you became victim of fraud, you’d better make claims as fast as you can, until the crook did not have time to cash out money. There is also useful option named “code-protected transfer” – if you are sending money this way, beneficiary will not be able to receive your transfer until he will not enter the code. This feature is very useful to prevent fraud – seller will see that you have money, and you will not give him the code unless will not receive item or service.

Webmoney have many ways to do in- and out- exchanges, unfortunately many of them are only available to citizens of ex-USSR. We recommend to use the services of planetwm.com for all operations of buying wmz, selling and exchanging wmz, wme and etc. They can help you to buy or sell WM for WU (Western Union), Moneygram, bank wire transfers in different currencies, and also for cash in their agencies. In some countries (Ecuador, Russia, Panama, Ukraine, Thailand, Latvia, Kazakhstan) they can accept internal bank wires and cash deposits, also they have 24-hours support in English, Spanish and Russian languages! We are working with this company many years and are very happy with quality of their services. We have to note, that WM have many regulations about exchanges – its prohibited to exchange webmoney to almost all e-currencies, you can only exchange it to payment systems like Paypal, Moneybookers, Paxum and etc. It’s also prohibited to fund your WM-account by third parties transfers, or to out-exchange it to 3rd parties. You can find this rules and regulations at planetwm.com website.

Security is really strong side of this ecurrency. Besides usual passwords/certificates/etc there are many ways to protect your account – IP-blocking, sms-verifications for every transfer (only thing that it’s not working good with many operators), usb tokens with keyfiles, but the most interesting security feature is called “enum”. Basically enum is using same way of verification as digipasses (security tokens) that are usually used by many banks – when you are entering your account, system will show you some code, that you will need to enter in your token. Token will generate you other code, that you will enter instead of passwort. Every user have unique way of generating codes, so it´s hard to steal access to account if it´s protected with such token. The difference between enum-authorization and usual token-authorization is that e-num software can be installed to any cell phone that supports java! You will not need to have any tokens, all will be in your telephone. So, if you will spend some time securing your account, your money will be safe!

WebMoney´s interface is significantly different from all known ecurrencies. It´s hard to say, is it more comfortable that usual or not – it´s unique. It have many useful features, but you will spend some time for getting used to it, and worst thing is that you will need to install special software (or browser certificates), depending on what type of “webmoney keeper” you will prefer. “Classic” version requires software installation, but it´s most fast and have all functions. “Light” version is browser-based, so you will need only to install special security certificates to use it, but its more slowly and have little less functions. “Mini” version can work on any computer and has fast and easy interface, but it also has many limits and miss many functions. Also you have to remember, that it´s impossible to change type of your wm-keeper from classic to light and vice versa – you will have to create a new account.

Every WM-keeper have possibility to use secured online chat with any WMID holder, that is quite useful for sending personal data and other private information. We recommend you to speak with your counteragents about details of future deal using WM-chat, not e-mail or messenger or telephone and etc. Later, if you will have any problems with this deal, you can send this logs to webmoney arbitrage and they can check it. Another original feature is “Business Level”, every account have it, and it shows how long and how intensively this account is used. When you register new WMID, it´s business level will be 1, after sending/receiveing few transfers it will be raised to 2. You will need to send/receive hundreds of transfers to reach level 100, and have many million turnouts (or make millions of small transfers) to have 1000. Usually it´s safe to do business with someone who have BL 500-1000 and above, but anyway don´t forget to specify all deal conditions in WM-chat before sending money.

After any transaction, you can leave positive or negative complain/comment about your counteragent, and this comments will be visible for everyone. When you are sending money to someone, who have complaint against him, system will warn you that this user have «claims in blacklist». So, if you have complaints against you, try to resolve that, because even if someone will write that you were not polite with him, message about blacklist will be same.

WebMoney have tons of different features, it´s very hard to describe even part of them. Unfortunately many services are in Russian only. Some features are quite interesting, for example:

Exchange engine – I already described it a little, can also be used for exchanges WM <-> Western Union or bank wire

Credit exchange and WebMoney Debt – you can issue or receive loans via this services

Capitaller and Shareholder – this services can be used for investments, buying and selling shares and etc

Files.Webmoney – this is something like rapidshare, but integrated with WM, so you can send file only for specific account, or make paid downloads easily

…and many, many others – check WM website for complete list! Also you can check website megastock.ru that is catalogue of sites and services that accept webmoney.

I described not even half of Webmoney features, this payment system have so many different functions that it´s hard to say abot it in one article. The most completed information about WM features can be found at owebmoney.ru website, but unfortunately it´s only in Russian language. This ecurrency have many good and bad sides, many fans and haters, so it will be better to try it, especially if you are doing business with ex-USSR or Russian-speaking people.

See also:

WebMoney started processing Bitcoin Webmoney Transfer now in Vietnam Limited account in Liberty Reserve – solving of problem Bitcoin is printing its own “bank notes” Starting of e-gold withdrawals!

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