Gpal ( Formerly Gunpal ) – Your Comments

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21 responses to “Gpal ( Formerly Gunpal ) – Your Comments”

  1. Look at what a PI posted about Ben based on public information he found on the internet:
    I found this on Calguns – the below information are not my words

    A little background is in order so what follows is understandable.

    GPal’s agreement page and web pages state they are not a bank, they operate by pooling all of the funds of the members of GPal into one or more FDIC pass through insured bank accounts. The money goes in and out of the account(s) via Automated Clearing House transfers, meaning via a system the banks use to move money. Including credit cards and bank transfers. For clarification, that FDIC pass through insurance only covers the GPal bank account(s) if their bank folds, not the members if GPal folds.

    The key here is the GPal bank account(s) with the pooled money. Also important is the ACH transfers take 3-4 bank days. Both in and out of the account(s).

    What follows is from public records available to anyone online.

    On 05 Mar 2008 in Santa Rosa Municipal Court, Sonoma County, CA American Express Centurion Bank received a judgement against Benjamin Cannon for $8,436.00 (Case #2008019692).

    On 29 Apr 2008 in Santa Rosa Municipal Court, Sonoma County, CA American Express Centurion Bank received a judgement against Benjamin Cannon for $33,143 (Case #2008038742).

    Both of these cases became liens against Mr. Cannon.

    Public property tax records indicate Ben Cannon has never owned any real estate. Anywhere. The public phone book shows he lives with his parents. Confirmed by 2010 arrest information for which the charges subsequently were dropped. Ignore this arrest, it’s irrelevant, meaningless, and distracts from the issue, GPal.

    The liens remained in force as Mr. Cannon did not pay them, and American Express did not locate any assets worth seizing.

    When Mr. Cannon opened the GPal bank account (singular) where the pooled money of members would be temporarily maintained until paid to intended recepients, apparently he was unaware the contents of that account would be subject to seizure to pay off the two liens. His story about the bank lying to him may have been a contributing factor, if it’s true. GPal’s track record in this mess has not been consistent reliable truth. Not slander, a fact I also experienced personally on more than one occasion.

    Had the account had $41,579.00 or more in the account when it was opened, it would have just lost the money owed American Express by Ben Cannon. If the account did not have this money, American Express would start seizing the money being deposited in the account via the ACH transfers, with the result being the ACH payouts wouldn’t happen. Which sounds a lot like what we have been seeing.

    A pause for a moment, there’s more.

    I don’t know Ben Cannon or any of his investors, friends, or fellow employees at GPal. I do not want this coming across as an attack on Ben or anyone else. Had they said it, I wouldn’t have had to investigate them. No one paid me to investigate them, I did it on my own. But I do have a California PI License (Mock Investigations Lic #PI 26431) and my work is limited to corporate investigations and identifying and locating all parties involved. I developed certain investigative abillities during a carreer as a cop (now retired) that have helped me in retirement.

    Now that I’ve been honest, I expect someone to try to shoot the messenger. But, my integrity doesn’t allow me to post something like this without putting my name on it and who I am. It’s bugged me Gpal VP hasn’t been indicating his name in his communication. No offense, I just have a different approach to damage control, or lack thereof. And I’ll tell you upfront I was forciby retired after 19 years on an industrial disability retirement for post trauma stress disorder and concerns on the PD’s side that I’d gone nuts and was a danger to many. Wife divorced me, I went bankrupt (out of it now). That’s all there is to find on me. I may be 5150, but I’m not a criminal.

    Back to GPal.

    $41,579 doesn’t seem like it would set GPal back too far, and cause the amount of money they now owe people. Until you examine the ACH system delay of 3-4 days and money being seized out of the account on more than one occasion over a period of time, as it comes in.

    The amount of time it is taking for GPal to pay the people they owe money is a big clue as to how long and how much that hit on the bank account set them back.

    In a previous post on this thread I made the statement GPal is robbing Peter to pay Paul. Take a look at the response by GPal VP and ask yourself, did he address the statement in a professional manner befitting a professional online financial operation. Also, his reaction confirmed to me in my mind my statement had some truth to it. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been attacked and his response would have been a lot less emotional and more professional. Why would their website say nothing of any of this and continue to operate like business as usual, when they know the money coming in will not be paid out for months?

    Damage Control

    Obviously GPal has been doing damage control.

    That bank account taking a hit could have been dealt with in 3 ways. Find another investor to cover the losses until they can catch up. Declare bankruptcy. Neither of these have happened, which takes us to the third option. Conitinue taking in ACH transfers form new transactions to pay the money owed from the earlier transactions and hope business continues enough to recover the $41,579 with the money GPal charges. And keep trying to find someone to invest in them to help them catch up.

    FYI, Ben has never filed for bankruptcy, has never been sued in Federal Court, and has no Federal arrest records. Ditto GunPal and Gpal. Ditto Ben’s previous companies that are now no longer in business, some of which their corporate license was suspended, one of which is a partnership in a construction company that’s still active but has had their State license revoked for something related to failure to pay Worker’s Comp insurance. All of this is public records anyone can verify, if you know where to look.

    If GPal had the money in their bank account, which is still ACH enabled in both directions, the transfers would go through. No bank takes money into an account and not pay out, unless there is a darn good legal reason for it. Now, after the liens have been collected, as the money comes in from new transactions, they are able to pay you. Their gamble is they will be able to catch up before everyone stops doing business with them.

    After this event broke, GPal was able to issue checks which they mailed via FedEx. Clearly they had access to funds not accessible to American Express, as the checks didn’t bounce. When those funds dried up, they stopped issuing checks and went back to stall tactics. I’ll leave it to you to figure out where the money for the checks may have come from.

    They may have changed banks or started another account, as one phone rep indicated to me, by someone other than Ben Cannon.

    Step back and take a good honest look at all the damage that’s happened that no one other than GPal has been responsible for. Significant would be an understatement. And who has it happened too? People who are gun owners and want GPal as an option. Have you seen anything from GPal or their management that takes ownership of these problems? Most of what I have seen has been blaming it on someone or something else. Why? Think about it.

    A note about public records. Not every city, county, and state makes their court records available to the public. Federal records, yes. There may have been other liens, but I did not find any in the public records.

    I do not know what started the lawsuit by American Express Centurion Bank against Ben Cannon. According to Hoover’s … “A subsidiary of credit card and travel giant American Express, the company issues and services its parent company’s revolving credit cards, including the Blue, Blue Cash, and Blue Sky cards. (Revolving cards carry no annual fees, but levy finance charges on revolving balances.) The bank also issues consumer charge cards, raising funds for all of its lending activities by selling short- and medium-term debt and securitized assets. It offers CDs to retail and institutional customers as well. The company mainly markets its cards via direct mail, the Internet, and television.”

    I cannot and do not do credit history checks.

    All of this is just public information. I’ve avoided putting addresses, phone numbers, or making threats. My belief is those who think they can try to “get even” don’t comprehend there is no such thing. All that can be done by that behavior is to make things even more uneven. Leave Ben alone. Either do business with him, or don’t. Your choice.

    What I don’t understand is why Ben and GPal didn’t just explain what happened. Clearly they have a lot of people who want to support them and have GPal survive. Myself included. Their version of damage control leads me to believe there are more things someone at GPal does not want known.

    I don’t know anywhere near everything about GPal or Ben Cannon. The window I have looked through does not provide inside information that might clarify some of this.

    I’ve seen enough for myself that I do not put any trust in GPal’s CEO to operate a business like I would like to see GPal become. Just my opinion, best thing that could happen, even if all of this can be explained, is someone who is capable and experienced with the banking industry and online ACH transfers to buy Cannon out and take over the business. The damage that’s been done, GPal may or may not recover financially. It’s moot to me, they’ve lost my trust.

    Jim Mock
    Torrance, CA

  2. GPal is likely blowing your money on hiring people to keep close tabs on any negative comments towards them on calguns, facebook, and any other site any of their people have connections too. Stuff disappears QUICK off those sites. If you want to see what I mean, keep an eye on their facebook page for a day or two, or one of the threads in calguns.

  3. Whatever is going on there needs to get sorted out with the public ASAP or else they need to GTFO of the business.

  4. If they are having issues, why does it appear to be “business as usual” on their website? That is unsettling.

    1. Admin (Mike) Avatar
      Admin (Mike)

      That’s a good question.

    2. Ben can get away with this in part because he’s got Paul Nordburg, Bill Wiese and the rest of the gang at Calguns.net managing his support forum for him.

      Here’s the now removed GPal “About Us” page that clears up some connections:
      http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/4439/gpalaboutus128452119172.png

  5. HAVE BEEN WAITING 4 MONTHS STILL NO MONEY FROM GPAL, I KNOW THEY HAVE THE CORRECT ACCOUNT BECAUSE THEY CONFIRMED IT BY PUTTING A COUPLE OF CENTS IN IT. HOWEVER, IT TOOK NO TIME AT ALL TO RESPOND WITH AN EMAIL STATING GPAL WOULD GIVE NO MERCY IN PROSECUTING ANY STATEMENTS THAT WERE UNFACTUAL SUCH AS CALLING THEM CROOKS,THEIVES,ECT. SO, WITH THAT BEING SAID I AM STILL WAITING TO BE PAID. SOON THERE WILL BE A TV CREW INVOLVED NOT LOOKING FOR BUT ASKING QUESTIONS OF THE OFFICERS OF THIS ENTERPRISE. ABOUT TIME

  6. 4 months ago they said: “our server is down right now please just be patient and you should see the money in yor account in abot 3 to 4 days.

  7. You define “pal” in the header of this post. I think the most telling part of this whole affair has been the way Ben’s “pals” have and are still covering for him. Calguns.net, GPal’s support forum, is still deleting posts and/or locking threads that are damaging to Ben/GPal. It’s been revealed that a few very prominent Calguns forum members are in fact GPal employees. They’ve been very active in their condemnation of anyone with a less then stellar view of Ben Cannon or GPal. The forum owner’s response to this revelation is not surprising; lock the threads, delete the posts where the information was released and warn the poster that “personal attacks” won’t be tolerated. Lets forget the possibly hundreds of personal attacks the GPal employees levied against those owed money while concealing the source of their bias/paychecks.

    Calguns has been a great ‘pal’ to Ben and GPal. I hope law enforcement and those who frequent that place and donate money to it and the Calguns Foundation remember this.

  8. Oh, it clear that Ben’s been tirelessly trying to repair GPal’s software and get everyone their money. Here’s a photo of him hard at work:

    http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showpost.php?p=1025498&postcount=2710

  9. Calguns.net just closed the GPal vendor forum which was in fact the official gpal support forum. The statement the mod there (who’s a calguns foundation board member) released is sickening. It’s a joint statement from Paul and Ben Cannon. Here’s a sample.

    “Calguns.net still maintains full faith and confidence in Gpal and their ability to resolve the current issues they are experiencing and will continue to accept Gpal as a payment option for advertising and Contributorships.”

    It’s sickening. Paul’s a liar and directly responsible for GPal getting where it is and doing the damage it’s done. Why he can’t decouple himself from Ben Cannon is puzzling. There is that old expression that starts with “birds of a feather…”

  10. November 16 2010, still no response from Gpal. Anyone no what to do next.

  11. Uh Oh. GPal get’s a little press in the FBI’s “Scam Alert” bulletin.

    http://www.ic3.gov/media/2010/101202.aspx

    Way to go Ben! And of course all mention of this is being deleted over at Calguns.net by Ben’s pals on the Calguns Foundation. If you’re giving money to the CGF I would encourage you to stop and let them know why. Those guys keep supporting Ben and his “business ventures” and I think the only thing they’ll understand is if money starts going to other less Ponzi Scheme friendly 2A organizations.

    Here’s the text:

    Payment Processor Possibly Conducting a Ponzi Scheme

    Since January 2010, the IC3 has received hundreds of complaints regarding a website that victims reportedly used to transfer money for the sales of firearms; however, the website has not allowed them to withdraw the funds after their merchandise was sold.

    The website claims to be a payment processor to be used as an alternative to other familiar online payment transfer services and was created to allow for the purchase of items that others of its kind do not allow (e.g., firearms). The website encourages consumers to use their services by advertising that they send money to consumers or anyone with an email address, an individual can easily pay for anything using the web, and sign-up is free, quick, and easy.

    The website appears to have been set up as a legitimate business but shortly after operations began, customers started experiencing funding delays. Ultimately, customers who received funds only received partial payments, and those payments were delayed by months.

    Additional research indicates that the money submitted for transfer may have been fraudulently misappropriated. This scam appears to have become a Ponzi scheme with previous customers being paid by funds from new customers.

    Oh and one more time, here’re GPal’s biggest fans:
    http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/4439/gpalaboutus128452119172.png

    1. Admin (Mike) Avatar
      Admin (Mike)

      Thanks for the update Zoltar. Surprisingly it’s business as usual on the Gpal website.

  12. July 14 2010 money was sent to Gpal still nothing in my bank acct. I filed a complaint with BBB in Ca. no response from the gpal. The gpal acct says transaction completed in august of 2010 yet my bank acct is still the same and no money has arrived. I think they are liars. Well any Ideas of what I can do next?

  13. Once again Ben has returned with a new poorly worded email “explaining” GPal’s problems and imploring his devoted customer base for assistance. Here’s the text:

    ——————————————————

    Dear Zoltar,

    GPal is happy to announce that operations are back up and running for new checking account transactions. Transactions originated on or after March 09, 2011 should now be processed within our 2-7 business day target.

    As some of our customers have been acutely aware of, GPal has been experiencing a variety of growing pains that stem from the Credit Card acquiring banks failing to deliver customer funds to GPal.

    As a result, we have taken the drastic step of suspending credit card payments entirely until such time that we are able to process them in a timely fashion.

    Many of you may be waiting on funds from those transactions and rest assured that GPal is doing everything we can to work with the banks to get your funds released from the Credit Card acquiring banks. If you are one of our customers who have been affected by these credit card bank holds, you can help us speed up the process by having the Buyer fill out the form at: http://www.gpal.net/CreditCardAuthorizationForm.pdf and sending it to [email protected].

    Throughout all of this, we at GPal have been fighting tooth and nail despite adverse bank action to continue to bring our customers the services they need and we will continue to disburse money to our customers within the bounds of bank requirements. It is our aim to provide you the best pro-rights payment processing service possible and we will not waver from that commitment.

    In order to get back on our feet and fully recover, GPal must expand its offerings, including but not limited to offering a Debit Card for easier and immediate funds access for our sellers and expanding our processing base. To do so we need your help.

    GPal remains absolutely committed to providing the only pro-rights and non-discriminatory payment service in the world. Thank you for your support and patience.

    Sincerely,

    Ben Cannon
    Chairman/CEO
    GPal, Inc.

    ——————————————-

    Shortly after this was posted a few people reported getting their long outstanding money from GPal. How did this happen? Well, as with all Ponzi schemes money in = money out. Ben got some suckers to give him their credit card info and the wheels were greased just enough to let a little money squeak out.

    The language (and poor grammar) in the email is typical Ben. The “struggle against a daunting freedom-loathing foe by a handsome and tireless Ben” theme is revisited. I’m sure some of Ben’s fans at Calguns along with site-owner and chief GPal censor Paul Nordberg got a bit of their outstanding money out this and will make a lot of noise about GPal’s glorious return to normalcy.

  14. Mike Pierson Avatar
    Mike Pierson

    I am here to tell you that this is far from fixed I am still out $582.90 since Jan 2011 and on other forums people have said they have been ripped off as well which if true the total of Gpals theivery is well over $100,000. DO NOT TRUST GPAL OR BEN P. CANNON.

  15. Thread Title: “G-PAL, GUNPAL , deadbeat dirt bag Ben Cannon UPDATE”

    I just got off the phone with Inspector Carl Chapman from the Northern California Computer Crimes Task Force. He told me that the Sonoma County DAs office has decided to not charge Ben Cannon in the misappropiation of thousands of dollars from hundreds of people because the DA’s didn’t feel like they could prove a crime had been committed. What a crock !

    Inspector Chapman has now sent his investigation information to the State of California’s Department of Justice to try to get them to prosecute Cannon and G-Pal. After that the plan is to contact the U.S. Attorneys office.

    Everybody that has suffered a loss or just wants to see justice served when it comes to gun owners rights needs to contact the State of California’s Pulbic Inquiry Unit at (916) 322-3360 or email them at [email protected]. You can leave a voice mail message if you can’t get through to anybody. Let them know that you want justice to be served and Cannon prosecuted. Remember ” the squeaky wheel gets the grease”. The more they hear from people on this the quicker they will be to take action.

    Anybody that wants to contact the Sonoma County DAs office and let them know what a sorry ass job they did, you can contact them at the Sonoma County DA’s Office, Environmental & Consumer Crimes Unit (707) 565-3161.

    Everybody needs to let Inspector Carl Chapmin know how much you appreciate his efforts in this case. (707) 265-2372 or [email protected]

    I am going to make an appointment with my states represenative of the U.S. Attorney’s office and see if I can get them to take some action. There are alot more states that don’t have the liberal mindset of California and anybody that has been robbed by G-Pal has the right to try to get that deadbeat Cannon to be prosecuted.

    I won’t stop going after Cannon and G-Pal until I get my money back from them or he goes to jail. It must really suck to be Ben Cannon right now. I know I sure wouldn’t want to be looking over my shoulder all of the time for the rest of my life wondering when I was going to have a run in with somebody that I ripped off.

    If anybody has any suggestions or input on this matter please post a reply.

  16. […] – “We need a network of banks and credit card processors” — yeah… remember gpal (gunpal) and what a disaster that was?  There are too many firearm related “networks” […]