Question about Gambling websites with Curaçao license using incorrect Merchant Category code (page 616)

Yes obviously will go down goods not received when raising a chargeback as the bank I'm with won't entertain gambling, but I tested the waters with the merchant directly first. At least I now have proof to take to the bank for each scenario should it come to it.

The Web Mosaic transactions matched with Funbet Casino. But I'm aware they are used for multiple casinos.

I posted the specific pages from the Merchant T&Cs, MCC Terms and Mastercard global terms. It's in black and white - for any merchant who wants to take payments for gambling they must have a Special Category Status and pass due diligence which is quite in depth. None of these casinos or payment processors have this status at all. Every UK casino has it if they offer Mastercard as a payment option, by law. Therefore if a casino takes money from a player and they don't have the SCS they are breaching their own Merchant account terms and Global Mastercard rules. It isn't even in dispute - this is what happens.

The problem people are facing is that banks see the word "Gambling" and automatically deny any kind of chargeback. This is simply poor training on their part. The actual process is if MCC 7995 is used then it cannot be charged back unless it is some special circumstance. These sites are not using MCC 7995 and have no ability to do so, it's a mire of retail/IT/Education codes they are using which are defined as 'low risk' and they are all available for chargeback if evidence is provided.

Hi

where can i find these terms from Mastercard? Do you have a link?

All within links on this page

https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/business/overview/support/rules.html

Note the terms are Global in the main.

does anyone know this merchant?

thx

So it appears Active web Limited dissolved in 2022 how do I go about disputing payments to a dissolved company?

Hi everyone!

I'm a journalist from Estonia, and I’d like to share some information about what we discovered regarding miscoding in a casino with an Estonian license — specifically Frenwall Limited, which we believe is connected to Swedish big palyer Infiniza.

I’d also like to thank the participants of this thread, as the information you shared helped us identify the Estonian companies involved in the scheme.

Our article is published here (sorry, it’s behind a paywall): https://www.aripaev.ee/suur-lugu/2025/04/09/eesti-varifirmade-vorgustik-liigutab-salaparaste-kasiinode-miljoneid

Here are our main findings:

• Frenwall holds an Estonian license but primarily operates in the Swedish market.

• In Estonia, there is a group of companies registered to individuals who are connected to each other. These companies appear to be shell companies used for transaction laundering/miscoding. We have talked to some of the nominee directors of those.

• This is not an isolated network — as you know, similar companies exist in other countries, such as the UK, the UAE, Poland, and others that have been mentioned here.

• We still don’t know who organized the scheme in Estonia or recruited the nominee directors.

• We didn't hear from Frenwall or payment operatior PaymentIQ.

• Swedish Spelinspektionen is aware of the miscoding issue and considers it unacceptable.

• Estonia’s Financial Intelligence Unit is also aware and mentioned this in their year book — published today — highlighting the use of local companies for transaction laundering.

• We are currently trying to find out whether Estonian law enforcement intends to take any action regarding this.

If you have any tips or info, feel free to reach out: polina.volkova (at) aripaev.ee

Thank you all once again for bringing this up

Polina

Crazy to believe this forum has had 1.5 million views 11.5k comments and the fraudsters are still at large. Thats a pretty large engagement. Surely their time is running out.

Just had word from my bank that VISA have sided with PYD processing over my chargeback dispute. This despite a) PYD's transaction history they sent my bank literally not adding up in £ to the transactions I had with them b) PYD not adhering to their own T&Cs but more glaringly;

c) PYD using the correct gambling MCC Code in the UK but not having a license to operate in the UK, which I informed VISA of with a letter from the UKGC

The ruling notification I got was as blunt as - VISA have ruled in the merchant's favour. That's it. No reasoning, no nothing. THAT'S IT!

M y bank who has sided with me in raising the chargeback and agreed with my evidence have now basically said tough shit.

What's my recourse here? Omudsman and potentially a solicitor? Surely to have used the correct MCC code in the UK, PYD must have passed some kind of stress test from VISA to allow that?

And why would VISA now still be siding with the merchant when this payment was illegal and against VISa's own T&CS?

Hi. There are hundreds of Estonian companies involved.

my latest one is EQUIDELLA OU. Never respond to emails or phone calls and people from my country can’t even sign up to their website

Thank you!

The more Estonian companies you post, the biggest chance for us to understand at least who is behind the scheme in Estonia. Right now we were able to identify only around 10 of them.

Best regards

Polina

Frenwall Limited are 100% connected to Infiniza, when emailing Infiniza when all this started and asking for my money back, i automatically getting rejected when trying to register on any of the Frenwall casinos with the message:

There are Estonians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Moldovan, Georgians etc all involved here. You will find most of them will have a link to Cyprus as well.

Hey, I know you have some good knowledge on these things. If the company was dissolved in 2022 but took my payment in 2025 what are the grounds for dispute/refund?

I have a transaction for 'slideflare Tallinn Estonia'. Unfortunately it fell outside the 120day mastercard chargeback period so I wasn't able to contest. But definitely linked to illegal online casino.

[email protected]

Hello everyone!

Can someone please help me with an email to sitexcraft? From what I've seen here it's transactworld but they don't want to answer me at all.

I have a few more: Prdctlux and Terrvers

What casino did you get your money back from and what did you write?

I played on Instantcasino, Tsars and 1gocasino, all registrered with Curacao license.

Instantcasino doesnt respond at all.

1gocasino responds but are just saying to contact Galaktika NV, but i tried and its been months and no response at all.

Tsars respond to emails and basically saying they are doing nothing wrong and they are threating you to not the chargeback, because its fraud etc.

Tsars are using "Spaceedge.io" a weird cryptocurrency company that are impossible to contact, they dont respond to support emails.

Mail from Tsars:

Dissolved as a UK entity? Did you check that they don't have a HQ elsewhere as 99% of the time they do - see PayOp for instance.