EasyPay CEO Oleksiy Avramenko has announced that the payment service has disabled the refund option due to a “fraudulent scheme” with the “Winter eSupport” program.
Since yesterday, Ukrainians have begun receiving payments of 1000 UAH as part of the “Winter eSupport” program, and since the list of ways to use the money is limited, some users have already figured out how to convert the funds into cash and spend it as they see fit.
One of these clever methods involved topping up a mobile account and using the refund option through the payment service EasyPay.
“Unfortunately, we had to disable the ‘refund money’ feature for Vodafone and Life subscribers. There are some ‘especially smart’ Ukrainians who decided to abuse the idea of the 1000 UAH ‘Winter eSupport’ this way. The service will not work for everyone due to the misuse of state aid,” — wrote EasyPay head Oleksiy Avramenko.
Remember, the “Winter eSupport,” was initiated by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky (and has already been nicknamed ‘Vova’s thousand’ by the people), as a way to “provide social support to citizens during the difficult winter period.”
Applications for “Winter eSupport” can be submitted through Diia — funds will arrive on the “National Cashback” card (pensioners and people with disabilities of groups I and II can receive 1000 UAH through “Ukrposhta”). They can be spent on utility bills, medical services, transportation fares, mobile communications, donations to charity, etc. (more details here).
According to the “Diia” service, as of December 11, funds have been received by 1.8 million adults and 520 thousand children.