I got a letter

[GuyMcBeerdrinker]

it has been a month and 6 days and still no reply from Da Man.

 

[Legends of the Playground]

EEK.

Ginseng posted this over on CigarPass:

Late Breaking News - I just received a first hand report of a W-Letter being received for a purchase under $500 made within the last month to one of the targeted Hong Kong-based vendors. There are two truly troubling aspects to this notification.

1. The purchase was recent, thus negating the prior assumption that the only period of interest was early 2004 to late 2005. Clearly, the attention this vendor is receiving is ongoing and intensive.

2. This purchase was made using the second, newly established payment gateway. This means that all known payment options are at risk. Further, the evidence now strongly suggests that the two major credit card providers (of cards in traditional or pre-paid format) are implicated in the turning over of purchase and account information to OFAC.

 

[Mikes]

looks like a whole bunch of broken box buy ppl will be shakin for a bit. Somehow I knew the other gateway was a simple bandaid to a much greater issue.

 

[williegstyles]

Yeah...Thats kinda what I figured. Quite frankly doing business with "said vendor" scares the absolute shit out of me. I have tried warning a good friend of mine of the ongoing investigation with "said vendor" and he doesn't seem to want to heed to the warnings. I guess he's just going to have to learn the hard way. He makes several purchases a month with "said vendor". I love cc's but not more than I love my family. Man...what a HARD lesson to learn.

 

[GuyMcBeerdrinker]

I'm only currently smoking tatuajes and el dentes.

 

[DRL1211]

Yeah...Thats kinda what I figured. Quite frankly doing business with "said vendor" scares the absolute shit out of me. I have tried warning a good friend of mine of the ongoing investigation with "said vendor" and he doesn't seem to want to heed to the warnings. I guess he's just going to have to learn the hard way. He makes several purchases a month with "said vendor". I love cc's but not more than I love my family. Man...what a HARD lesson to learn.

That's not me your talking about is it.

 

[williegstyles]

That's not me your talking about is it.

Absolutely not....I was referring to hippie Jay from habana house.

 

[williegstyles]

I'm only currently smoking tatuajes and el dentes.

Tatuaje's are not a bad choice. I personally would add in some Don Pepin black labels. These two are my favorite nc's.

 

[Legends of the Playground]

One has to wonder whether OFAC is going to get wise and start looking at other vendors as well. I think this has the potential to get really, really ugly.

 

[Rutkus]

i fart in your general direction :jitb:

 

[Legends of the Playground]

Another update. Seems like it was for an old purchase in 2004. But letters are still going out.

From ginseng's post over on VCC:

I have edited this post but left the original content greyed out at the very bottom of this post. The update is directly below.

UPDATE February 26, 2007

My source made a mistake and in so doing, gave me erroneous information. Here are portions of our communications.

Quote:



Source: I received the warning letter after using XXX vendor and their XXX payment processing option using XXX major credit card




to which I responded:
Quote:



Ginseng: When was this purchase made? What was the approximate dollar value? I'm guessing under $500. Was this purchase made between March 2004 and August 2005?




and received this in return:
Quote:



Source: Within the last month... under $500




I subsequently received communications from the vendor in question. He raised some relevant points regarding the new payment gateway and the timing of the letter and in fact at least one member contacted me with questions about this as well. I passed on to my source what was given to me by the vendor and finally received this:

Quote:



Source: Oh hell, my mistake. I dug out the letter..it was dated 1/31/07 referring to a purchase 12/24/04. Since I picked up the package from XXX vendor and the certified letter at the same time @ the post office... I put the 2 together and mis-read the dates (year)of purchase.




So, the bottom line is as follows:

1. The period of interest as far as the OFAC investigation has not changed and remains early 2004 to late 2005.

2. I am aware of no reports of letters being received for purchases made in 2006 or 2007.

3. I am aware of no reports of letters being received in response to purchases made through any of the recently established payment processing gateways.

4. Nobody has any plausible explanation of OFAC's motivation for this specific investigation. We simply do not know what the triggers for this sweep are although the rules and laws are documented and clear. In other words, no one knows why now and why only this time frame of interest.

I deeply regret that I presented inaccurate information to the community. In my haste to inform others of what I perceived as a new and imminent threat, I checked but did not double check my information. And for that I apologize to the community members as well as the vendor. I will continue to maintain that my primary responsibility is to obtain, analyze, and disclose relevant information to my fellow cigar smokers but from this point onward, I will maintain open communications with the vendor as well.

As to whether this or any vendor should be placed on "no-buy" lists, I leave that to your individual discretion and risk tolerance level.

 

[Mikes]

Gordon Mott
Executive Editor, Cigar Aficionado
Member
Posted February 28, 2007 02:34 PM Hide Post
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have a request. No promises here, but I'd like a little ammo for a future editor's letter. How many of you have gotten letters? Maybe you could snail me copies, and detail your experiences. I'll keep the names out of any published editor's note, but I like to know just what's going on.

c/o Gordon MOtt
Cigar Aficionado
387 Park AVe. S, 8th Floor
N.Y., N.Y. 10016

That we keep it between us. Seems to me like there might some other more important concerns out there in world today than checking people's credit card transactions overseas.

thanks.

Gordon Mott

 

[GuyMcBeerdrinker]

mike -- where did you see that posted? I might get in contact with mr. mott, but I'm not going to snail mail him a copy. just send him an electronic scan with my personal details removed.

 

[Mikes]

Cigar Aficionado bbs

in the cuban room

with the candlestick

 

[Quadry]

My stock is seriously depleted right now. I am smoking less and that is not good. I will be glad when all of this bullshit is over.

 

[williegstyles]

My stock is seriously depleted right now. I am smoking less and that is not good. I will be glad when all of this bullshit is over.

I feel your pain....if this keeps up i'll have to sell my cab and get a 25ct desktop








NOT!

 

[Mikes]

Just order some eldentes ) I have a few empty boxes and with ronys new sale I see that I can fill up old boxes with new product. Hell If I am going to smoke them why do i need a band anyway....now not having the box is another story. I like to see what inventory i have not the eld boxes.

 

[Rutkus]

man, those coros were hard to pass up...

 

[Mikes]

J.

how many days has it been now since you sent them a letter?

mike

 

[GuyMcBeerdrinker]

sent 1.3.07
received 1.8.07

57 days since receipt. if 90 days pass I might assume I'm in the clear.

one positive sign is that last week I was finally approved for a permit that required an fbi background check. the whole thing was completed outside the normal processing time, so maybe the letter might have held it up. and they must have either determined it to be a non-issue or was dropped which finally got me cleared.