I was at the gym this morning when my phone rang from an unknown number. I answered and the man on the other end starting explaining that he was a secret service agent and that he needed to have a face to face chat with me in order to clear up a case of 'identity theft', 'money laundering', and 'bank fraud'. It really felt like a scam, (I was like, doesn't the SS protect the president???) so I told him to not bother with me, and that if these claims were serious he needed to contact me through mail or through a verifiable source other than a miscellaneous phone number.

After hanging up, my phone rings again. And again. And again. I keep ignoring it, and finally answer and he starts explaining the gravity of the situation and that we are going to have a face to face, or he will be issuing a warrant for my arrest. He cites my full name, SSN, DOB, that I am a psych major at OSU, and all other information that any scammer would be fishing for. I tell him that I will just go down to the police station and meet them there, and he accepts this. Im starting to believe this isn't a scam.

I get home, and my phone rings again. He claims he is at my apartment, with his partner, in a black ford. Sure enough, black ford rolls around, and two guys in suits step out with folders. They follow me into the lobby of my building, present their badges, and ID cards, (they are legitimate, as far as I can tell, secret service badges and id cards) and I decide that I should probably listen to them.

They start asking me about wire transfers I received from 2009-2010, from payment processors such as "clearwire" (i think) and another called "prime" something. They say that these payment processors are known to have funded terrorism, financed kiddy porn networks, and are otherwise involved in pretty much any kind of money laundering possible. I inform them that I am a professional poker player and that all of these wires into my account came from Absolutepoker.com. Once I mention that I am a professional poker player the seriousness of the situation seemed to evaporate a bit and they started talking a bit more casually with me.

They said they are currently investigating anyone who received payments from any of these processors, that playing online poker is illegal, or any form of online 'gambling' for that matter, and that by accepting payment I committed the act of 'bank fraud' and 'money laundering' and that if they wanted they could charge me and issue a warrant for my arrest. However, since I cooperated with them, and I'm just at the consumer level, there would be no charges against me. They also, unfortunately, informed me that any funds locked up on AP or UB have been completely seized and that there was no way I would ever be seeing them. This really sucks as I have 45k on ap and was hoping that maybe some day I would at least get a piece of it. They also advised that I myself not engage in any type of online poker or gambling due to it being illegal, and that any transferring of funds to or from a gambling company, either directly or indirectly, constitutes bank fraud and money laundering, and that I advise anyone I know to stop playing on the sites that have yet to be seized by the DOJ, which they said was happening as we were speaking.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it sounds like the secret service is finally starting to go after poker players for online gambling. They said they are going to subpoena my bank accounts for further inquiry, but that it shouldn't interfere with my day to day life, they just have to do their due diligence to make sure that there are no more wire transfers coming in from these companies.

Has anyone else had this happen to them yet? I was really shook up from the whole experience and thought I would post it on here as a warning and also to see if anyone had any advice for what I should or shouldn't have said to them during our conversation or in the future. They left me with their number and told me to call if I had any more information regarding the payment processors that I had received wires from in the past (which I dont, they just always showed up as "wire transfer from 1-800-xxx-xxxx on my bank statements).

Thanks in advance.

I don't know why people talk to the jackbooted thugs in suits.

Well they said you have nothing to worry about right. No charges against you. Unless you didn't pay taxes on it. Then that could be a problem.

Wow really feel bad for you.. 45k getting taken from you would be really tough to have to realize you prov never get esp when you did nothing really wrong really and were just a customer there and also for most people that would represent a very large chunk if not all of their total net worth.

Absolute Poker owners should personally come to your house someday with the cash in hand or something to make things right. They knew this could happen eventually legally but gambled with your money and not planning to repay the seized funds even if they have take the loss by the us gov and repay players like you somehow / someway.

Then to top things off they deal with payment processors who could be investigated for other kinds of "more serious" money laundering which has now directly got you involved with the Feds. Wow. I hope thats not too standard among the online poker sites.

It's not a good sign that this happened though even if the OP isn't going to be charged with anything. I'm hoping this entire fiasco is tied with AP/UB somehow.

bmorgan, weird question. did you ever play mtg?

level

ya

Realistically isn't this always the problem among 95% of cases I'd speculate and surely has OP sweating. Feel bad for you on this one really.

having trouble believing this, if true that's kind of sickening.

PLAYING online wasnt even illegal

The SS is a branch of your treasury dept., which is why they investigate these types of things.

It's funny/typical how they stretch the truth re the illegality of playing online poker.

cops....

I forgot to mention the agents said they had a list of 750 other people they had to question. IDK if this is like nationwide or just in my city of Columbus.

But depositing and withdrawing money WAS and IS illegal

Disgusting but not surprising if true

yah but seems like cashing out was

land of the free, I'm glad I live in a country that understand freedom, THE UNITED KIN... wait a minute, **** man... seems like freedom is only as free as they allow..

Ummm, not really. Pretty sure the UIGEA just covers funding the sites and not withdrawing. Still WAS and IS a grey area.

Pretty sure this is not correct.

I think it was illegal but the liability is with the financial institution rather than the player.
Could be wrong.

it was illegal for the banks to process gambling transactions. poker is not gambling. therefore, not illegal for them to process poker transactions.

This was my understanding as well.

OP wasn't approached because he played online poker. It seems that the payment processor in question that AB/UB used was also involved in much shadier things than facilitating cash flows for online poker sites. The Secret Service agents were there to see if OP was one of the "wanted" clients of the processor. They knew the processor processed poker transactions and aside from a few comments about the illegality did not seem concerned. From OP's account, it seems the agents were relieved to hear that he was one of the shady processor's poker clients. While scary as hell for OP, I don't see this as something to be alarmed about, nor would I believe that 2 federal agents interviewing random wire recipients are in the know as to the final disposition of seized funds. And even if that is the position of the Secret Service, the courts are certainly going to have a say.

OP and anyone else who might be approached in this manner, you always have the right to say you want to speak with an attorney before answering questions.

No, it isn't.

I would advise against this. As the agents were leaving, one of them told me that if I hadn't finally answered my phone and spoken with them I would be in a solitary detention cell downtown. I assume on the way to guantanamo.

a secret agent will never tell you he's a secret agent
feds aren't secret agents
the law didn't make playing online poker illegal but forbids US banks to do business with online gambling sites
the feds don't phone you they wait for you to appear
secret agents job is not to enfoece law but to prevent very bad things to happen
you have been pranked
or you think we are all morons
april fool joke?
I remember a similar thread wherever on that forum

Jesus, I can't believe people actually think this.

Have you ever used a dictionary? Sorry, is Webster just not reliable?

a : to play a game for money or property
b : to bet on an uncertain outcome