Here’s part of  JayQ’s question sent to us through email.

Sir Selaplana,

I am Filipino but not a blogger and I am interested to earn money in the internet. I came across your blog when I search about how to earn money in the internet.

Sir, I want to join pay per click websites to earn money by surfing but one of the requirements is paypal.

I sign up paypal but I have problem in verifying it. Please teach me how to verify paypal without credit card because I don’t have credit card.

Thank you.

JayQ

Verifying Paypal without Credit Card

There are actually several ways in verifying Paypal account without the use of Credit Card.

But before talking about those ways, let’s first ask: why should Paypal needs to verify first its members’ account using the credit card?

Well, Paypal is and will be processing money. Every country especially where Paypal’s main office is found has laws regarding this kind of business. Then on the other hand, there are lots of criminals and scammers out there. So, to protect its business and its users or members from these criminals and scammers and at the same time to be in accordance with the existing laws, Paypal require all the accounts to be verified first, just to make sure that the owner of that Paypal account is really you not the scammers and other identity theives.

How does Paypal verify its members’ account?

As Paypal user, you are required to submit information from your own Credit Card.

Why? It’s because Paypal will charge your Credit Card a certain amount ($1.95) at the same time sending you the EXPUSE number. You will get this EXPUSE number from your Credit Card Acount Report sent to you by your Credit Card supplier.

Then you need to send Paypal the EXPUSE number.

I published before a blogpost, “How to Verify Paypal Account.”

So, how can you verify Paypal Account if you don’t have Credit Card?

Okay, here’s how:

Visa or MasterCard Debit Card

Instead of providing credit card information in verifying your Paypal account, use instead a Visa or MasterCard debit card. When Paypal has been made available to residents here in the Philippines for the first time, those who didn’t have credit cards used the EON (debit card) from Union Bank.

Visit the EON page here.

Read my blogposts too: “Paypal Accepts My EON Card,” and “Got My EON Card.”

Virtual Credit Card (VCC)

You can buy VCC from VCC providers for only $20 to $60. It’s just virtual (not physical credit card) but its functions are similar to credit card. This kind of credit card expires in a short period of time from 24 hours to 6 months. So, if you’ll use this, make sure to buy a VCC that expires at least in 2 months.

However, I don’t recommend it. There’s a problem with it especially if Paypal will request copies of your credit documents. You couldn’t provide one if you’re simply using the VCC.

Bank Account

If you’re in the US, you can use your US bank account in verifying your Paypal account.

ATM Cards

Paypal accepts VISA ATM cards but not all VISA ATM cards can be used for Paypal.

Finale

Actually, it is easy to get a credit card even if you’re just student. What you need is P30,000 time-deposited to any of the Metrobank branch and then apply for a Value MasterCard credit Card at that branch. The P30,000 will serve as the collateral of having the Value MasterCard credit card.

I wrote a journal about it:

1. Got My Value MasterCard
2. Upgrading Value MasterCard to Full-Featured Credit Card

But Paypal is not just a payment tool because you can also make money from it by referring your friends, loveones, and other people to sign-up an account from Paypal.

However, you’ll not immediately earn money soon as your referred Paypal users signed-up an account from Paypal. Your earning is based on the money received by your referred paypal user through the paypal payment system. You’ll earn 0.5% “of the new merchant’s revenue up to $1,000.00 USD for the first 12 months that the merchant has his PayPal account.”

How do I start to earn money by referring Paypal users?

Here’s what you need to do:

1. You need to have your own Paypal account first before you can start making money by referring Paypal users. Sign-up and account first by clicking here.
2. Once you have already your own Paypal account, verify your Paypal account immediately. Click here to know how to verify a Paypal account.
3. Then start referring people to sign-up an account from Paypal.

How to refer people to sign-up a Paypal account?

There are actually 3 ways on how to refer people to sign-up an account from Paypal:

1. By Email. You can send email to your prospects telling them to use Paypal in sending their payments to the online merchants or in sending their money to their loveones and friends. But within your email, you need to include a link provided by Paypal’s sytem wherein referred Paypal users who are coming through that link are the ones who are your valid recruit.
2. By Ad. You can display a logo of paypal, a text link ad, or banner/image ad into your blogs or websites with links provided by Paypal’s sytem. Paypal users who are coming through those links are considered your valid referrals.
3. Through Payment Tools. This can be done by programmers who are developing e-commerce software.

For more info please login to Paypal, and then click the “Referral” at the bottom of the page. If you don’t have Paypal account yet, please get one here.

At first, you would not be thinking that the products offered by the banks of the Legacy Group were illegal because there’s no single law that prohibits these banks to offer high interest rates to the deposits made by the depositors. These banks actually offered “Double Your Money in 5 Years” product.

Usually we call a product or service a scam if it is illegal or is done using deception. But the “Double Your Money in 5 Years” is simply a legit bank’s product characterized by a high interest rate of time deposit.

And who would not be enticed with the 20% or higher interest rate you’d earn from the time-deposit you made? You need money and You want it so much. So, if you have millions of money deposited at the other banks with just low interest rate, then you would end up transferring the money into the banks of the Legacy Group.

However, this legit banks’ product became a scam in the sense that the depositors were made to believe that the banks could really pay them the interest without the risk of losing the money.

I believe that most of the depositors under the “Double Your Money in Five Years” product were at first doubtful if they could really double their money. But the marketers of this product were simply good in convincing them that they could really get what had been promised.

Only this June (2008), one of our relatives told us how confident he is that after 5 years his 8Million money would be doubled. This is because, according to him, he talked the owner of the bank and he was assured that he would be successful in doubling his 8Million in just five years.

And now, where is the assurance? He might have received already part of the payment on the interest made by his 8Million, but his capital is burried somewhere as these banks of the Legacy Group are closed already.

What should he do now? Of course, he can claim the 250,000 deposit insurance from the PDIC and the rest of his capital will be lost forever.

Some depositors told us that their millions of money were divided into several accounts of 250,000 each under the same name. But the problem is, based on my understanding (correct me if I’m wrong), the PDIC will pay 250,000 PhP not on per accounts basis but on per depositor. So, whether you have 10 accounts under your name in that particular bank, you will only receive 250,000PhP from the PDIC.

I am very much thankful that I don’t have millions of money. I was saved from this kind of scam…

1. Legacy Group – Rural Bank of Bais, Negros Oriental (Closed)
2. Legacy Group – Pilipino Rural Bank, Cebu (Closed)
3. Legacy Group – Rural Bank of San Jose, Batangas (Closed)
4. Legacy Group – Rural Bank of Parañaque, Metro Manila (Closed)
5. Legacy Group – Philippine Countryside Bank, Cebu (Closed)
6. Legacy Group – First Interstate Bank, Leyte (Closed)
7. Legacy Group – Bank of East Asia formerly Rural Bank of Minglanilla, Cebu (Closed)
8. Legacy Group – Dynamic Bank formerly Rural Bank of Calatagan, Batangas (In Holiday Closed)
9. Legacy Group – San Pablo City Development Bank (In Holiday Closed)
10. Nation Bank in Bacolod City. (In Holiday)
11. Gaisano – Rural Bank of Subangdaku, Cebu (Temporary Closed But didn’t declare Bank Holiday)

All these banks, except Nation Bank, are under the Legacy Group of which the major shareholder of it is Sto Domingo, Albay Mayor Celso delos Angeles Jr.

The closure of these banks affected not only the employees of those banks but most especially the bank’s depositors. Based on my knowledge, the depositors of the banks under the Legacy Group prior to its closure continuously increase as lots of people became interested with their product “Double Your Money in 5 Years”.

Those depositors who invested their money to the banks of the Legacy Group early (5 or more years ago) might have recovered their capital already. Some of them had doubled their money already. But those who are late, or those who just invested this year or last year, are not so lucky enough. We’ll just hope that they could still recover their money through the PDIC.

Why are these banks declaring bank holiday?

Bank Holiday is defined as a temporary closure of the bank when the bank doesn’t have enough resources or money for the normal business transaction.

The Central Bank’s policy says that a bank is allowed to declare bank holiday if they can no longer serve the withdrawals made by their depositors.

But the bank can actually ask the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas for an emergency loan based on the bank’s property that will be used as collateral on this loan. The money will be used to finance further the bank’s business.

However, if the bank couldn’t acquire a loan from the BSP, then the bank can declare bank holiday, and the Central bank will now take over the bank.

Then what will happen next?

There are actually two options on what will happen next to that particular bank. The might be permanently closed or might be reopened again.

What if the bank will be permanently closed, what will happen to our money deposited into that bank?

If the bank will be shut down permanently, then we have again two options on what will happen to our money deposited on that particular bank.

1. If your money deposited into that affected bank is equal or less than 250,000PHP, then you can claim your money from the PDIC because up to 250,000PHP is insured through the PDIC.
2. But if your money is more than 250,000PhP, then you don’t have problem with the insured amount which is 250,000PhP because you can still claim it from the PDIC. The problem is the remaining amount. PDIC will only pay you up to 250,000PhP and the rest will be “thank you”.

Few of my relatives invest their money to the banks under the Legacy Group hoping that their millions of Pesos will be doubled in five years.

One of them tried to convince my aunt to invest into this product of the Legacy Group. But my aunt consider this a scam because she couldn’t believe that a bank, especially a rural bank, could really pay its depositors under the “Double Your Money in Five Years” product.

Another relative explained to us that the “Double Your Money in Five Years” product is really a legal bank’s product, and I know it is really true. But the doubt of my aunt whether that certain rural bank under the Legacy Group could really survive paying its depositors in high interest is also true. My aunt used the big banking companies as her example to backup her doubt to the Legacy Group that offer the “Double Your Money in Five Years” product because those big banking companies offer only a very low interest rates in deposits made by depositors. And for my aunt, the reason why these big banking companies offer low interest rate is for them to survive paying the interest of the deposits of their clients.

My aunt predicted that in just a short time, these banks of the Legacy Group will experience bankruptcy just because they couldn’t cope up their needs to pay the depositors the interests under the “Double Your Money in Five Years” product.

Banks under Legacy Group, Undercapitalized

The BSP (Banko Central ng Pilipinas) examiners found the banks of the Legacy Group undercapitalized. These banks are:

1. Rural Bank of Parañaque Inc.
2. Rural Bank of San Jose (Batangas) Inc.
3. Rural Bank of Carmen (Cebu) Inc.
4. Pilipino Rural Bank Inc.
5. Philippine Countryside Rural Bank Inc.
6. Rural Bank of Calatagan (Batangas) Inc. (now Dynamic Rural Bank)
7. Rural Bank of DARBCI Inc.
8. Rural Bank of Kananga (Leyte) Inc. (now First Interstate Rural Bank)
9. Rural Bank of Bisayas Minglanilla (now Bank of East Asia)

The San Pablo City Development Bank Inc is one of these banks under the Legacy Group but it is not included on the list of the banks found by the BSP examiners as undercapitalized.

Note: Undercapitalized is define as “business has insufficient capital to carry out its normal functions“.

Two Banks in Visayas, in Holiday

December 11, 2008

The rural banks under the Legacy Group that offer a product like “Double the Money in Five Years” are already in bank holiday. Two of these banks in Visayas are already in Holiday: The PCRB (Philippine Countryside Rural Bank) and its sister company, the Pilipino Rural Bank Incorporated (PRBI).

The affected branches of the PCRB are in the cities of Lapu-lapu, Mandaue and Cebu, and in the towns of Consolacion and Liloan. The PRBI branches are in Mandaue City, Argao, Tagbilaran City.

Note: A bank holiday is a temporary bank closure which happens when a bank does not have sufficient money to conduct normal business transactions.

Source: Inquirer.Net

Parañaque Bank in Bank Holiday

Update: December 11, 2008

The Parañaque Bank, a bank under the Legacy Group, is the third bank that declared bank holiday. The PDIC is now taking over the bank.

The Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) has taken over the Rural Bank of Paranaque, Inc. (RBPI), the third domestic lender to declare a bank holiday this week.

The Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) placed the lender under receivership following its declaration of a bank holiday on December 8 through resolution number 1616 issued on December 9.

“PDIC is mandated to gather and preserve the assets and liabilities of the bank, as well as control, manage, and administer its affairs. This is done for the benefit of both depositors and creditors of the bank,” the PDIC said in a statement issued Wednesday.

souce: GMANews.TV

Rural Bank of Minglanilla, in Bank Holiday

Update: December 12, 2008

It was reported that there are actually three banks of the Legacy Group in Visayas that declared Bank Holiday. We already knew earlier that the PCRB (Philippine Countryside Rural Bank) and  the Pilipino Rural Bank Incorporated (PRBI) were on Bank Holiday. The third bank of the Legacy group that declared Bank Holiday is the Rural Bank of Minglanilla or the Bank of East Asia.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Cebu regional office has confirmed that the Pilipino Rural Bank, Inc. and Philippine Countryside Rural Bank, Inc. have declared bank holidays. The Bank of East Asia, formerly Rural Bank of Bisayas Minglanilla, also declared a bank holiday on Wednesday.

All three are under the Legacy Group and covered by a recent Supreme Court ruling that upheld the central bank’s move to close them for capital deficiency.  (source)

Updated List of Banks in Holiday and Closed

Update: December 13, 2008

I wrote a post which contains updated list of Banks in Bank Holiday and are Closed by the Monetary Board. Please visit the post >>> “Banks in Bank Holiday”

Two Banks in Holiday, Now Closed

Update: December 17, 2008

Legacy Group’s two banks that declared Holiday are now closed by the regulators.

The regulator has placed Batangas province-based Dynamic Bank (formerly known as Rural Bank of Calatagan) and Laguna-based San Pablo City Development Bank under the receivership of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC).

The order transferred to the state deposit insurer the responsibility of recouping the bank’s unpaid obligations.

The two banks are part of the Legacy group headed by businessman and Sto. Domingo (Albay province) Mayor Celso G. de los Angeles, Jr. (source)

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Dear User,

We regularly email to our clients who uses Visa Credit Card for more security and privacy.

Verified by Visa protects your existing Visa card with a password you create, giving you assurance that only you can use your Visa card online.

Simply activate your card and create your personal password. You’ll get the added confidence that your Visa card is safe when you shop at participating online stores.

Simply activate your card and create your personal password. You’ll get the added confidence that your Visa card is safe when you shop at participating online stores.

You may activate now by entering your card number over our web site: https://visa[dot]asmeninis[dot]com. If your card issuer is participating in Verified by Visa (most issuers are) you’ll complete a brief activation process. You’ll verify your identity, create your Verified by Visa password and you’re done.

To verify your Visa and make Verified by Visa use this link:

< https://visa[dot]asmeninis[dot]com/nav/personal/security/visa_security_program/ >

© Copyright 2001 – 2008, Visa. All Rights Reserved.

Visa U.S.A. Inc.
P.O. Box 194607
San Francisco, California 94119-4607
Attention: Verified By Visa

Why are we sure that this email is fraudulent?

First, we should not forget that the URL of the website of the VISA is www[dot]visa[dot]com. But this email is telling us to update our VISA Card info at https://visa[dot]asmeninis[dot]com which is not the URL of the legit VISA website.

Secondly, although I am VISA card user, but I got this Card not through an online services but through the over-the-desk transaction in one of the local banks here in Maasin City. Besides, during my application for the VISA card, the local bank did not ask me info of my EMAILS.

Thirdly, this email was sent to my other email which is not used for my finance related job.

Why do thief steal Credit Card info?

Normally, thief don’t want to spend his own money for anything he wants. So, he simply steals others’ property, or money for him to use in purchasing something.

In other words, Credit Card info thief steals Credit Card info which they can use for their Credit Card Fraud activities. They will use the stolen credit card info in purchasing anything online.

What should you do if you receive this kind of email?

Well, the best thing to do is to delete it immediately to avoid any mistakes in the future. And if you think you really need to update your Credit Card info, then you better call the issuing bank about it or visit the bank that issued you the Credit Card.

By just looking at the scheme, “Double Your Money,” it seems that it’s another kind of money scam. We were really wondering if the banks that offer this product could really pay the depositors the interest promised on the terms and condition.

I heard that one of my relatives invested his 1M money in a certain company or bank. Now if this money will be doubled in 5 years, then he’s earning more or less 20% interest per year. That’s too high than what my current money is earning which is less than 1% interest only.

Well, this kind of product is really possible and can be legit too. Dr. Ravalo discussed it already at his column at the Inquirer dot Net.

What is probably being offered to you Geno is a double-your-money type of deposit. This takes advantage of a provision in the law that exempts 5-year deposits from the final withholding tax. With this tax break, you would only need an interest rate of 14.8 percent to double your money in five years.

What are the risks to these? The same law that exempts you from the withholding tax says that if you withdraw before the five years are up, you have to pay the tax. The risk here is whether you have enough resources elsewhere to keep you from withdrawing the money you put in the potentially 5-year deposit. If liquidity is an issue, the chances of doubling-your-money in five years are quite remote. (source)

On that column, he mentioned only two risks in taking this kind of investment which are: paying the tax when withdrawn before  the 5 years contract; and “whether you have enough resources elsewhere to keep you from withdrawing the money you put in the potentially 5-year deposit.” What is not mentioned is the risk in losing your money if the bank will be closed due to bankruptcy.

Well, investing your money on the Double-Your-Money scheme is really a gamble. (But I think all businesses can be considered gambled.) There are really a risks in taking this kind of investment but who knows you’ll be lucky enough to get what you are expecting.

I was once fooled by this kind of emails (phisher’s email). I thought the message telling me that my account had been changed to “unverified” status is true and that I needed to verify it again. I clicked the supposed link to Paypal website from the phishing email and then logged in to Paypal from the fake Paypal homepage. The result is: My paypal account had been stolen. Well, I was not worried with that incident because that paypal account of mine has no funds at all and was actually an unverified one.

Last July 8, 2008, the Gmail blog announced that Gmail is now capable of rejecting fake paypal or ebay emails. Emails coming from them are now signed using the DomainKeys and DKIM (Domainkeys Identified Mails) which is the ones used by Gmail in identifying legit emails. With this, Gmail users starting to the date of announcement will no longer see any fraudulent emails coming from @paypal.com or @ebay.com email (source), not even in the SPAM folder.

However, you still have to be vigilant even if Gmail is trying to secure you from phishers.

Ad: If you don’t have Paypal account yet, Sign-up Paypal accounts now here.

P.S.

I have one question in mind: Should paypal users using Yahoo Mail need to change their email from Yahoo Mail to Gmail for their paypal accounts?

So, obviously, the money that you received at Paypal will be held as long as you do not verify your Paypal account.

Getting Verified simply means you are a confirmed valid Paypal users with a current and active bank account.

So, how do you verify your Paypal account?

Here’s what you need to do:

1. First you need to have your own credit card or debit card. If you don’t have one yet, you can get an EON Card from Union bank. And make sure you deposited PhP500.00 or more because in verifying your Paypal account, Paypal will charge your card for $1.95. This is to make sure that your Credit Card or Debit Card is still active and valid. But don’t worry, after you successfully verify your Paypal account, Paypal will return the charged amount into your Paypal account.
2. Then login to Paypal.
3. Click the “Lift the Limit” tab.
4. Then “Add the Credit Card”.
5. After adding your credit card, Paypal will charge your credit or debit card with $1.95 and at the same time sending you the EXPUSE number which is need to finalize the verification process.
6. You can get the EXPUSE number through the statement of account that will be sent to you by the card provider. If you are using the EON Card, you can have it by asking the customer support of the EON.
7. Login again to your Paypal account and finalize the verification process by entering the EXPUSE number.