Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

Accounts on e-Bullion.com were still inaccessible on Thursday afternoon, two days after a message appeared on the front page of the website saying services would be temporarily taken offline to perform "routine maintenance." While some e-Bullion customers have expressed concern, others have told The Industry Standard that they are not worried about the outage, which started earlier this week following the arrest of the site's owner, James Fayed.

Fayed is currently being held in a California jail on a charge that he performed unlicensed money transactions. Yesterday, a judge denied bail after prosecutors said he was a suspect in the murder of his wife and e-Bullion co-founder Pamela Fayed.

e-Bullion's "digital gold currency" and e-currency services have an unknown number of customers. Four who were contacted by The Industry Standard said they have been unable to access their accounts or contact anyone at the company since the site went down on Tuesday. These complaints were echoed by commenters on an Industry Standard article published Wednesday.

Other customers, however, did not seem very worried. Jay, who asked that his full name not be used, reported that he has $4,000 in an e-Bullion account. He explained that while the outage was inconvenient, he expected he would be able to access his funds within two days. Jay added that he wasn't bothered by unconfirmed rumors that federal authorities are accessing and monitoring e-Bullion's servers.

Mark Herpel, an e-Bullion customer who is also the editor of DGC Magazine, expressed confidence that he would be able to access his funds. Herpel reported that despite the website outage, account data relating to e-Bullion's debit card service can be accessed by phone. The Industry Standard was unable to confirm this.

When asked whether e-Bullion has an auditing mechanism to verify whether customer deposits are backed up by physical gold holdings, Herpel said e-Bullion has not released audit reports for several years. "You might think that because [e-Bullion] did not publish, it was some kind of red flag but no one thought of it that way," Herpel explained, noting that he has used various e-Bullion services since 2002. "It never bothered me or the agents I had used."

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background:

Not all e-Bullion customers are worried by outage

Ian Lamont — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:17:08 -0400

The Industry Standard has called and emailed e-Bullion several times, but has not received a response. Calls to Fayed's lawyer and the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case were not returned.

Background: