Which regulatory agency is responsible for Payoneer's business practices? Where can I file a complaint? Okay, two questions.
Here's what I found out and why:
Payoneer is not a bank or considered a financial institution. They don't fall under the jurisdiction of the Comptroller of the Currency and you can't file a complaint with the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, Customer Assistance Group (CAG) or at helpwithmybank.gov.
Payoneer, Inc. is an MSB (Money Services Businesses). MSB's are required to register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), of the U.S. Department of the Treasury every two years and file or maintain a list of their agents. No complaint form anywhere.
Why: Last Wednesday night I made a transfer from my Payoneer virtual wallet to my bank checking acct and my balance, transactions and transfer all looked fine. Thursday mid-morning my Payoneer card is declined at the gas station pump as well as inside at the register. Payoneer mobile app reflects an $80 discrepancy from my balance the night before. I was going in for foot surgery so I didn't have time to address the issue. After coming out of the general anesthesia, I peruse my activity and see four transactions that day to a merchant: SMS OTP Services that I'm not familiar with and did not authorize. While searching for Payoneer's dispute phone number I found copious info about how Payoneer keeps our money and accounts safe with "2-Step verification, CAPTCHA requests, RSA adaptive authentication, account takeover prevention, Risk model and behavior profiling" and on and on and on. Pages of multi-layered account safety non-sense that apparently failed in my case.
So I finally find the number to call to report the fraud. After filing a case I'm advised that my card is now blocked and it will cost me $12.95 for a new one and ALSO that I have to file the case again the next day during business hours at a different phone number. I ask to have the card charge waived but am denied. Next day I report the disputed transactions again ask for waiver of the card fee but still no. I ask to speak to a Payoneer supervisor but, after a lengthy wait, am advised that the super said the card fee can't be waived. I insist that I need to hear that directly from a supervisor and after another extended hold I was assured that the supervisor who's only identifiable by first name will get back to me within two hours. I'm sure you can all guess how this ended.
