Some answers to your technical questions

Hi everyone,

We understand that a number of you encounter some perplexing technical issues with which you need guidance. In this blog, we would like to share some common scenarios we get along with their corresponding solutions:

You cannot log into your account due to a proxy

1. A proxy server is a gateway between a local network, like a personal computer or group of computers used in a company, and a larger network, like the Internet. It can hide the IP address of the computer behind the proxy and can enhance security. However, it can also be used to hide the network address of a fraudster.

For security purposes, AlertPay blocks any attempts at logging in through a proxy server. You can visit this website for instructions on how to disable the proxy.

2. If you still experience the same issue after trying the above, please send us a brief explanation of the issue and your IP address so we can assist you further. You can get your IP address here.

Submit a ticket to Technical Support or post your question in the general tech support forum; it might take up to 24 hours before we process your request.

You received an error and an issue number

If this happens, you can either try again later or submit a ticket to Technical Support or submit a post in the general tech support forum with the steps that led up to the situation. Attach a screenshot of the page before & after with all information filled in if necessary. Our Tech Team will look into the issue and resolve it in a few hours. We will contact you if need be.

Seller cannot accept credit card payment after doing a Website Review

You may not be able to accept credit card payments because the URL for which you were approved is not where you put your payment button.

Your buttons will only process credit card payments if they are placed on a URL that has been successfully reviewed. For example, if you submit the URL www.example.com, you will only be able to accept payments that come directly from that URL. Even if you have successfully completed a Website Review and put your payment button on www.checkout.example.com, your payment will fail because that is not the exact URL you initially submitted.

If your button is not working, please send a ticket to Technical Support or submit a post in the general tech support forum with an explanation of the problem and the URL on which the button is located. If we require an account through your website to view the button, please supply a test account so that we can use temporarily to investigate the issue.

Member is receiving this message: "Sorry, the seller's payment button settings are incorrect [Currency field is invalid]. If you are a buyer, please inform the seller."

If you are a buyer, please inform the seller about this issue.

If you are the seller, please send a ticket to Technical Support or submit a post in the general tech support forum with the URL of the location of the payment button or the link code that you are using to reach our checkout page. Tech Support will investigate the issue and contact you with a solution.

That's all for now. We will be adding more scenarios and solutions to the list.

Thank you for choosing AlertPay!

www.alertpay.com is fully operational again!

Hi everyone,

Maintenance went well and the site is fully accessible now!

Remember that if you have a general question about AlertPay, try looking though our comprehensive knowledgebase to find an answer.

If you have an account-specific issue, please contact Customer Support by email or phone. Please note that our phones lines have been phenomenally busy as of late, so keep trying.

All technical questions and other concerns related to buttons, APIs, IPNs, etc..., should be posted in the Developers' Forum.

Thank you for choosing AlertPay!

Scheduled maintenance on Thursday

Hi everyone,

This message is to let you know that we will be doing some scheduled maintenance on Thursday, February 25 from 6:00 a.m. EST - 10:00 a.m. EST .

During this time, you will not be able to use or login to your AlertPay account. You may contact Customer Support during maintenance hours, but we will only be able to answer general questions about our services since our applications will also be affected by the maintenance.

If you have any account-specific questions, please call after 10:00 a.m. EST and we will be happy to assist you.

If you have any technical questions, please direct them to the Developers' Forum.

Thank you for your understanding.

Attention Developers: We just launched a new and improved Developers' Community!

Hi Developers,

**This blog is specifically for developers ONLY**

We have a really good surprise for all of you developers out there! If you want to integrate the AlertPay payment platform into your website, we made it way easier than before.

We are proud to announce the launch of our new Developers’ Community, which contains loads of new material to help make integration —among other things — super simple.

Remember the old Dev Center with zero documentation? Well, you will no longer have to scramble. We have it all!

New APIs

Send Money API: Send money instantly without logging into your AlertPay account. You can send information about your payment directly to our API and the transaction will be processed automatically.

Mass Pay API: Send a payment batch without creating and uploading a CSV file. It’s great for those who wish to further automate their payout system. IPNs are sent out for every transaction in a batch.

Refund API: This one makes life easier for sellers who need to refund a specific transaction through their web application. This feature allows sellers to issue a refund without logging into their AlertPay account.

Subscription Cancellation API: The Subscription Cancellation API is the ideal tool for any website that sells subscriptions to their users. You can easily cancel a subscription by sending a request to our API. This also allows customers to cancel their subscription through the seller’s website.

Get Balance API: Query our system to find out all the balances in your AlertPay account. This API is useful when combined with other APIs.

New Guides and Documentation

IPN Guide: Set up Instant Payment Notification (IPN) and receive transaction details whenever a payment is made to your AlertPay account.

EPD Guide: Receive the same IPN data that is sent to your Alert URL and allow your customers to view their transaction details on a post-payment page.

Multi-Item Button Guide: Enhance your shopping cart integration by listing the details of individual items in a single transaction on the AlertPay checkout page.

Form Pre-Filling Guide: Simplify the checkout process by automatically filling information fields so your customers don’t have to.

And much more!

Advanced Integration Guide

We also created a comprehensive Advanced Integration Guide that will surely answer any questions you may have about integrating your application with AlertPay.

Advanced Integration is for sellers who want more flexibility when creating payment buttons. Advanced Integration facilitates the creation of dynamic "Buy Now" buttons found in many shopping cart and e-commerce solutions. Knowledge of HTML coding is required.

The Discussion Forums

To encourage the flow of ideas and innovation, we are opening up several new forums in which developers can learn from each other, share code snippets, advice on best practices and tricks of the trade, and discuss various issues and troubleshooting strategies.

To participate in any of the new forums, both new and old members will have to sign up for an account through the Developers’ Community.

Please note that the Developers’ Forums are only to be used for serious discussions about integration and related subjects. Furthermore, this Community is designed for developers with sufficient technical knowledge to integrate AlertPay with their application free of support from AlertPay technical staff.

Any feedback?

If you have any helpful feedback on our new Dev Community, please leave a comment in the appropriate forum.

Thank you for choosing AlertPay!

Accessing www.alertpay.com

Hello,

If you are trying to access the main site at www.alertpay.com, it is currently being redirected to our dev center temporarily. It is being resolved by our technical team and should be back to normal within a few hours.

For the time being. you can access the main page directly at :

https://67.205.87.235/login.aspx


You will need to accept the certificate and continue since the certificate is by our domain name and not our IP address.

Can you pass the password test?

Bruce Shneier, a security technologist and author, wrote a recent article entitled, "Passwords are not broken, but how we choose them sure is", which is all about passwords, how we choose them and how easy they are to crack. Yes, they are easy to crack if you don't know the basics of security.

Shneier outlines a few things that password hackers look for:

- Does the word appear in a dictionary - English or foreign?
- Does the password include a name, meaningful date, a phonetic pattern, an appendage or common capitalization?
- Of the appendages used (example: password123!, "123!" being the appendage), are double-digits, dates or single symbols used?

Password hackers will do research before trying to guess your password. With their seemingly magical powers - to lay people - they can divine all sorts of personal information from your internet browsing patterns and activities, making it exceedingly easy to guess your all-important passwords.

In an attempt to teach AlertPay members about password security, take a moment to answer the following questions. If you answer yes to more than two, you may want to consider resetting your passwords:

1. Do you use foreign words or words that appear in any dictionaries?
2. Do you use typical capitalization and appendages?
3. Do you use dates as appendages?
4. Do you use common substitutions like "$" for "S" and "1" for "I"?
5. Do you use the same password for multiple applications, including online banking?
6. Do you share your password with other people?

If you answered "Yes" to all or most of these, please know that you are increasing the risk of compromising the security of your personal information, and subsequently, your identity. But you're not alone! A lot of us are guilty of the above password offenses, but like the old adage goes, "it's better to be safe that sorry".

Shneier recommends choosing your passwords like this: make up a sentence, "This little piggy went to the market", and create a password with the letters, "tlpWENT2m" and throw in a random letter substitution for good measure. Apparently, this is a recipe for online security and uncrackable passwords.

Try it today and share your internet security stories with us!

What to expect with the upcoming re-design

Hi everyone,

We are getting closer and closer to launching the re-designed website! We are now aiming for somewhere in March or early April. The site will still look like AlertPay, but certain aspects will be new and improved.

New tabs

Rather than seeing the usual “Deposit”, “Withdraw”, “Send Money” and “Request Money” tabs, you will see “Shop Online”, “Sell Online” and “How It Works”, among a couple others.

Through either the “Shop Online” or “Sell Online” portals, you can navigate to a page that contains information necessary to what you wish to accomplish online, whether it’s adding a credit card to do a little shopping or setting up your AlertPay account to sell goods and/or services online.

Through “How It Works”, you will be able to figure out in a few simple steps how to use our payment platform. You can use it to deposit money and send it to someone; to make an instant online credit card payment; to sell goods or services and accept e-wallet and credit card payments; and how to withdraw your money if someone has made a payment to you.

With our new tabs, we hope to offer more specialized content depending on what you are interested in doing through AlertPay.

New pages

We will be introducing several new pages to the website with the hope of giving you the information you need to figure out how to use all of our services with minimal support by phone or email. Here are a few pages you can look forward to:

• Press and Media: This page will feature some of our media engagements, like interviews, reviews and articles. You will also be able to check out some of our corporate documentation, latest news feeds, social media hubs and fun videos.

• Fraud Prevention: This page will be targeted at our sellers and will contain some in-depth content on our various fraud prevention measures we use to protect your account, your information and your transactions.

• Buyer and Seller Protection: These respective pages will outline what we offer you in terms of protection while shopping or selling online. This is something we will be continually improving.

• Credit Card and E-wallet: This page will explain the advantages of using AlertPay to make credit card and e-wallet payments. It will also invite you to take our brief but informative Shop Online or Sell Online tutorials.

• Mass Pay: Although we always offered a mass payment feature, we never published any useful content on it — until now! It will touch on the benefits of using AlertPay to send batch payments to multiple recipients.

• Business Tools: This page will also be a portal like Sell Online/Shop Online, as it will link to several relevant pages full of content related to online selling, like Buttons, Business Profiles, Shopping Carts, etc….

And much more!

New Tutorials and Guides

We will be offering tutorials for setting up your account to shop online/send money or to sell online and accept payments. They are fun, fast and very informative and we’re sure you will walk away from our tutorials feeling assured in your ability to use your account without any difficulty.

We are also introducing at least two guides; one for sellers and one for shoppers. Each guide is quite comprehensive and will answer many questions ranging from how to add a bank account to how to reset a password, and much more!

Our goal is to give you the tools you need to achieve your own goals, whether it’s selling goods, sending money to family and friends or just shopping online securely. We want to empower you with as much knowledge and know-how as we can!

The launch is sneaking up, but we still have some tweaking and adjusting to do to ensure that your web experience with us is a positive one.

Thanks for choosing AlertPay!

All about Credit/Debit Card Withdrawal

Hi members,

Did you know that you can withdraw the money in your AlertPay account directly to your Visa or MasterCard? As long as you can use a credit/debit card through AlertPay, you can withdraw money to it as well.

Which credit/debit cards?

You can withdraw money to a Visa or MasterCard. We apologize, but this service is not available for American Express.

How does it work?

You only have to initiate a withdrawal in your AlertPay account:

1. Login to your AlertPay account.
2. Select “Withdraw”.
3. Select “Credit Card” as your withdrawal option.
4. Choose the credit card you would like to withdraw your funds to. If you have not added a credit card yet, you will be prompted to add one.
5. Select or edit a currency: USD, EUR or GBP.
6. Click on “Next”. Your transaction will be complete in 2-4 business days.

Who can withdraw by credit/debit card?

Anyone who can add a credit/debit card to their account and use it online through our platform can withdraw by credit/debit card. See our Worldwide page for what you can do.

What if my currency is not available for credit/debit card withdrawal?

Credit/debit card withdrawals are offered in USD, GBP and EUR at this time. If none of these are the primary currency of your country/credit card, don’t worry. You can still withdraw your money to your credit/debit card. Just choose a currency and your bank handles the rest. They will automatically convert the funds to your local currency.

Example: Let’s say you live in India and your credit card is denominated in Rupees. You can withdraw your money in USD, EUR or GBP but your bank will convert the funds into Rupees.

How much does it cost?

It costs $5 USD (or equivalent) to do a credit/debit card withdrawal. Please see our Fees page for the charge applicable to you.

What about currency conversion fees?

If you are withdrawing money in the same currency as your credit/debit card, then you will not pay any currency conversion fees, no matter where you’re located.

But your bank may charge fees for currency conversion if you withdraw in a currency that differs from the currency on your credit/debit card. Please inquire at your bank for more information.

How long does it take?

A credit/debit card withdrawal takes 2-4 business days to complete. It may take longer to see the credit on your credit/debit card statement.

What if credit/debit card withdrawal is not supported in my country?

No worries. You can still withdraw by bank transfer, bank wire and/or check. Please see our Worldwide page for the options available to you.

So, there you have it! Withdrawing by credit/debit card is as easy, maybe even easier, than withdrawing money any other way!

If you have any questions pertaining to credit/debit card withdrawal, please post them here.

** Please avoid submitting comments about account-specific issues and anything other than credit/debit card withdrawal. Those types of comments will not be posted. **

Thank you for choosing AlertPay!

Evans Wadongo: CNN’s “Young Wonder”

Evans Wadongo, founder of Sustainable Development For All – Kenya, skips two meals a day to fund his project that helps many people and the environment. Although he has an Engineering degree and could be making the big bucks, he prefers to dedicate his time, knowledge, resources and compassion to his project.

His organization’s mission is to help “poor communities attain sustainable development” through various initiatives like improving health systems in poor rural communities, increasing knowledge about positive environmental practices, increasing access to clean drinking water, educating youth about HIV/AIDS and drug use, encouraging the use of renewable energy, like solar power, and much more.

This young man is so special that CNN is officially recognizing him as a hero (he will be in the "Young Wonder" section)! SDFA-K is also the first Non-Profit Organization to use our “Donate” button, so you can contribute to his cause, help the environment and improve the quality of life for many Kenyans.

To make a donation, you can login to your account - if you have one already - and make an e-wallet or credit card payment. If you do not have an account yet, just fill in the simple form and make an instant credit card payment. It's super simple and secure!

Wadongo is a true specimen of heroism, philanthropy and environmental consciousness. Please help support his organization and help saves lives and the planet. Donate now with AlertPay!

You can catch him on the Larry King Live show tonight on CNN at 9p.m. EST and again at midnight. This is the shortened version of the show.

You can watch the longer version on the following dates (on CNN):

- Friday, February 12: 8-9 a.m. & 2-3 p.m. EST.
- Saturday, February 13: 10-11 a.m., 3-4 p.m., 5-6 p.m., 10-11 p.m. & 1-2 a.m. EST

Tune in and make a donation!

Related videos:

- Let There Be Light: The Making of the MwangaBora

- CNN Hero: Evans Wadongo

Join our exciting discussion on website pet peeves!

Hi everyone,

We just posted a new discussion on Facebook about your biggest website pet peeves.

Ever go to a website and the page takes way too long to load? Or click on a broken link when you really really want to know where it goes? Or you have no idea where you are, what you're looking at and what to do next? Haven't we all.

We're sure you all have had similar experiences, on our website or on a different website, and we want you to share it with us!

If you don't have a Facebook account, just leave your comment right here. We'll be happy to read and respond to what you have to say.

So, take a moment and air out your frustrations so we can learn a little bit about what gets under your skin.

Take care!

Not getting through by phone? Business is booming and we're trying to keep up!

Hi everyone,

** Our phone support number is correct, we're just a little overloaded. **

Many of you are trying to get through to us by phone to no avail. We understand that this is an issue for a lot of you because you are just dying to chat with one of our awesome Customer Support Specialists. And we want to chat with you too and help you accomplish what you need to get done.

Because of the increasingly high volume of phone calls we receive in a day, many of you are left behind to wait on hold or to just get disconnected. We want to reassure you that we are hiring more people to take your phone calls and provide you with the assistance you need and deserve. So, please hang in there!

In the mean time, if the problem is not too urgent, just submit a ticket to our support desk and we'll try to help you as much as we can. If it is urgent, please keep trying!

Why not play a little Sudoku while you wait on hold? It'll help pass the time and keep your brain healthy and happy!

Thank you for your understanding.

Advance fee fraud and 419 scams: what you need to know right now

AlertPay Scam Prevention

Hi folks,

As many of you know, the internet is a precarious space and you always have to be on your guard no matter what. We recently came across some very interesting articles that we would like to share. They are about "Advance Fee" or "419" scams. Here's a brief explanation:

An advance fee scams begins as a seemingly innocent email request from someone who sounds like they may be important in some way. The urgent email is usually from a bank or governmental official, a person who recently inherited a lot of money or just from someone who is attempting to sound authoritative. Some even sound downright desperate... but that's part of the con.

They will try to convince you to send them money or to cash a check for them. For the use of your bank account, they will offer a percentage of the money they're asking you to cash. If they're not asking you to cash a check for them, then they are telling you that they need the money for charity or their starving children. They are appointing you as their own personal sucker, to put it lightly.

The important thing is that you keep your money and your personal details to yourself. Just delete, delete, delete those emails and pay no mind. Seriously! If anyone ever asks you for money or information and the deal sounds just too easy or too good to be true, be very careful because you could be dealing with someone who aims not necessarily to hurt you, but to take care of themselves and their needs at your expense.

Please read these great articles to learn more:

- Advance Fee Fraud

- Interview with a scammer

Take care and be safe when doing anything online!

About the verification time frame

Hi everyone,

Verification is an important way for us to get to know you better and to develop a more in depth understanding of the members who comprise the AlertPay network. It can also help prevent fraud and money-laundering!

We understand that waiting for your account to be verified can be a little annoying, but please know that we review and process documents based on priority and the order in which we receive them.

We told members in the past that it can take up to 10 business days to get verified; however, due to the increasing number of accounts that get opened every day, we are being faced with even more verification documents to review.

With that that said, members who are waiting for their verification documents to be reviewed may be waiting longer than 10 business days. We do not have a specific time frame in which your documents will be reviewed but we will get to them as soon as humanly possible.

We must review them based on a priority sequence to be fair to all members.

Furthermore, we are working on a more automated verification process for all members so that accounts can be verified within moments rather than weeks.

Lastly, if you have been waiting for a while, you only need to submit one ticket. Sending multiple tickets to Customer Support will increase your wait time due to the amount of time it takes to read and review all of the additional and unnecessary tickets.

So, please submit only one support ticket regarding verification.

Thank you for your understanding!