I'm considering switching to OKpay (from Dwolla) for executing USD monetary transfers between my bank and exchanges like Mt. Gox. I noticed, however, that to avoid the low 300 EUR limit for daily withdrawals on OKpay, you first have to verify your account, which requires giving OKpay all your personal details including photo IDs, etc. I'm generally leery about giving this much information to an institution unless it is highly reputable; you don't want to risk that at some point they might cut and run after selling all of their customers' ID info to identity thieves. If your identity gets stolen, it can be a huge hassle and take you a long time to recover from that event.
So my question is, do you personally think that OKpay can be trusted well enough to give your photo IDs etc. to them. If so, why? Do you know for sure that the individuals who run the site could be held accountable by some government if some event such as mass identity theft of their customers were to happen? Or if not, why not? Do you have any reasons to be suspicious of them?
Thanks very much for any opinions...
Risk of OKPay scamming you / being irresponsible with either your money or your identity? Relatively low.
OKPAY Inc - Founded 2007 by industry veterans. Based out of the British Virgin Islands.
Risk of your identity provided to OKPay being accessible as part of standard reporting to financial regulators, or ending up in the hands of auditors, staff, janitor who happens to be very fond of a laptop that was left unsecured overnight? Very high. [Edit: Well, high for the "reporting to regulators". Hopefuly the risk of the janitor getting your records is low.]
If you do not want your identity and your associated transaction history to some day end up in the hands of others (or "out in the wild" if the result of a hack) then don't use the banking system. There's just no other way to say it. There is no "safe" method of using the banking without the risk that your identity will be exposed.
If you are willing to "chance it" by using them without providing identity, and then for whatever reason they lock your account until you provide AML documents, then that's something you can do. But know that with every additional transaction you make through them comes an increase in the likelihood that you will be
asked given the option to either provide identity or abandon the account and any funds held.