Hello
At first, sorry for my english it's not my first langauge
I play on stars since 2011. I used to be pro in my early 20s but I retired in 2018 and went to daily job. After that poker again was a hobby that in future could be nice side income. Since always pokerstars was my first choice.In Feb 2021 I had quite serious surgery and I had 6 month to recovery. During that time I obv played a lot of poker. On stars I played last month when they gave me exlusive poker challange. I played nl50 cash. Last session I played 8.08. On 15.08 I finally had a time to play some session but when I tried sit at a table I saw this:



I instantly sent email to support and got replay like 18h later:

Hello Milosz,

Thanks for reaching out.

In line with our internal security processes, we carry out periodic business risk assessments on randomly selected accounts.

We're sorry to tell you that your account didn't pass this recent screening process and that we've closed it permanently

Regards,

Anthony
Anti-Fraud Team

I mean for what? Can I do something more? Maybe some explenation from stars? There's no chance to get back my account? What will happen with my money? Does any1 had simillar problem?

I replied instantly and got waque anwser

Hello Milosz,
Thanks for reaching out.

In line with our internal security processes, we carry out periodic business risk assessments on randomly selected accounts.

We're sorry to tell you that your account didn't pass this recent screening process and that we've closed it permanently.

We would like to take this opportunity to advise you of our Terms of Service about your responsibility as an account owner. As stated under 'BREACH':

"Without prejudice to any other rights, including the generality of Clause 10.3, if a User breaches in whole or in part any provision contained herein, including, without limitation, if any of the following occurs:

a User has more than one active account;
the name on a User's account with The Stars Group does not match the name on the credit card(s) used to make deposits in that account;
you provide incorrect or misleading information to The Stars Group when registering for the Service;
you become subject to restrictions that prohibit The Stars Group from dealing with you or performing any financial services for you;
you are not of legal age to use the Service;
you reside in a jurisdiction where using the Service is prohibited by law;
you have allowed or permitted (intentionally or unintentionally) someone else to play using your Stars Account;
you have made chargebacks, and/or denied or reversed any payment made by you in respect of the Service;
you have cheated when using the Service including having breached any provision of Clause 5 and/or 10.17;
you use the Sites, the Service or your Stars Account in bad faith; or
you breach Clause 7 by making statements that are sexually explicit or offensive in the chat facility, including expressions of bigotry, racism, hatred or profanity,
The Stars Group or any other company within the Group reserves the right, in its unfettered discretion, to take such action as it sees fit, including terminating this Agreement or any other agreement in place with the User, immediately blocking the User's access to the Service or to any other service offered by The Stars Group, terminating such User's account on the Sites or on any other site operated by The Stars Group, seizing or quarantining all monies held in the User's account on the Sites or on any other site operated by The Stars Group and/or taking legal action against such User."

The Terms of Service which you agreed to abide by when you opened your Stars Account, in particular under 'AUTHORITY', state that:

"The Stars Group retains authority over the issuing, maintenance, and closing of Users' accounts on the Sites. The decision of The Stars Group's management, in regards to any aspect of a User's account, use of the Service, or dispute resolution, is final and shall not be open to review or appeal. The account created by a User shall hereinafter be known as a Stars Account. The User's Stars Account will provide access to all the Sites, made available to you under the terms of this Agreement, by The Stars Group, as applicable to your geographical location. Any and all references in this Agreement to the term 'User account' or 'account' means your Stars Account."

Anyone had something similar? Is there any chance to get back my account?

Yes it happened to me about a year and a half ago. Quite similar story.

Also been playing for 10+ years and suddenly got the same message but they told it was for a 400 bucks deposit which they had to investigate, which was very strange as I had before deposited more than that , also had my account verified multiple times before and had a 4k deposit /month . After sending documents they re instated my account but took away this same exclusive challenge I also had, I think because I was quite aggressive with them.

So I took out about 8k I had and left stars for 3 months until they gave me back again this stupid challenge which I think might be the answer for many bad things. I then deposited around 300 only this time to see what happens and 3 days before completing the challenge and getting close to 1k in cash winning and to 1.2k challenge chest guess what?? Yup they again closed my account for the exact same reason to investigate my deposit !!!

I obviously this time did not take very well and went crazy , let them know they are severely incompetent, spammed their social media as I could not believe how come they ask me where I had the money as I cashed 8k from their own stupid site just couple months before and had all my document in order with them from last time. At some point IVANA from stars felt that she needs to permanently close my stars account basically for absolute no reason. They also sent me that stupid copy paste from TC but did not tell me what exactly I did wrong as I obv did nothing.

They did sent me the 1k I had but the 90% completed 1.2k challenge was gone.

And now the funny part comes .. after half a year after permanently closing my account I sent a message saying I don't want to multi account , did nothing wrong and they shoul let me back in . Surely enough a guy asked an id copy and within half an hour my account was fully re instated !!!!!! I asked what my deposit limit is he said 5k/month and 1k/day lol right??

Many others have reported these kind of events with accounts frozen for the past 2 years. I d recommend not write angry messages and send an e mail saying you want your money back .

Gl and may God pay IVANA from stars what she deserves

So yea, after 1 month of fighting with Stars support I still dont know anything. After they told my that my account will be closed I ask for explanation. After few days got email from other guy that my account is still under review and should wait. Ok thats quite good news. So I wait. Last week I wrote email s they decided something. Got replay from 3rd guy that my account will be closed. It as the same messege that I got first time. Once again I asked for explanation and now Im waiting for replay.

I mean I have no clue whats going on

I will paste here some emails I got:

W dniu 2021-09-15 18:07:50 użytkownik security@starsaccount.eu napisał:
Hello Milosz,
Thanks for reaching out.

In line with our internal security processes, we carry out periodic business risk assessments on randomly selected accounts.

Your account didn't pass this recent screening process for casino games. For this reason, we've restricted your ability to play casino games. However, your account remains open and you can still enjoy our other products.

I asked what about my money? Can I get it back?




REPLY:
Hello Milosz,
Thanks for reaching out,

In order to cashout your funds. Please send the requested documents.

A copy of a valid government issued photo ID.

A copy of a current consumption bill (telephone, gas, water bill or similar) showing your name, address and the date of the bill (the bill must not be older than 3 months). If you do not have a consumption bill, an account statement showing your name and address is sufficient. We cannot accept screenshots from mobile devices or bank statements from online banks such as Revolut Monese Monzo Atom N26 Pockit Ltd etc.

A copy of a current bank statement from the account to which the payment was made.

If you are sending us a bank statement or a copy of a card, please keep the following information in mind:

PCI COMPLIANCE:
As a part of our continued efforts to protect the security of our customer data and continued compliance commitment towards the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), ensure that only the first 6 and last 4 digits of your card number(s) are visible. All other digits must be protected (masked or covered) rendered not readable. Do not send a copy of the back of your credit/debit card(s).

If you only receive online bank statements, you can send a screenshot of your statement. Ensure the card number (only the first 6 and last 4 digits visible), your current address, your name, and a recent date are visible. The image taken must be of the entire screen because the URL (the address of a web page on the internet) must be visible.
If the credit/debit card numbers do not appear on your bank statement, send us a sample showing the most recent transactions to your account.
You can upload your files via our desktop software, mobile app, or website. Once we receive and review them, we'll notify you.

After that I send all the mentioned documents and I got anwser:

Hello ,
Your account is undergoing a standard security check.

The purpose of these checks is to know our players and to establish that they are legitimate. This process ensures that our site remains a safe and secure environment.

Please fill in the form attached to this email and, once you've done it, email it to us along with any of the requested supporting documents to:

cdd@starsaccount.eu

We understand that each player is unique and may have trouble obtaining certain documents. If this is the case, we'll try to assist you with an acceptable alternative option.

The supporting documents we need are:

A clear copy of your valid government-issued photo ID or passport (front and back).
A clear copy of your most recent utility bill (telephone, gas, water, etc.) showing your name, address, and statement date (no older than 3 months). Alternatively, if you don't have access to a utility bill, we'll accept a bank statement displaying your name and street address. For the purpose of verifying your address, we can't bank statements from online banks such as Revolut, Monese, Monzo, Atom, N26, Pockit Ltd, etc.
Last 3 payslips from your current employer.
A bank statement showing the last 3 credits coming from your employer.
Proof of ownership of registered Ecopayz and Neteller accounts

And in the diferent email I got Account Funding Confirmation. They ask my where I work, how long, how much do i make? Is it normal? Im little affraid to telling those things since online poker in Poland is illegal. Also for me its doesnt matter since for poker I only use money that I earned playing poker so my sallary has nothing to do. In past when I was fulltime pro I was using bigger amounts and it was never a problem.

Does anyone had similar problem?

I haven't been entirely but they froze my account without notification and demanded similar documents they've requested from you. I have been playing on Stars for circa 16 years, 3 of which I played full time, and the service was always really good. Now they just seem like they don't care and don't want to know.

I hope you get it sorted. I won't be playing on stars again and I would warn anyone else to get their money out while they can and find a more reputable site.

ROFL

If you have your money confiscated, you have a natural right to hear the accusations against you, and to defend yourself against any accusations.

If they are just saying they don't want you in their business any more, you don't have such a right. You'll have to patronise somewhere else.

It's not clear which of the two situations is at issue here.

Yes, this is a standard Source of Funds check which Stars are legally required to conduct at the direction of regulator, most likely Malta Gaming Authority since you're in Poland but I'm gonna take a wild guess that you may have been obfuscating your actual place of residence since you say online poker is illegal in Poland, and therefore they are asking you to confirm your place of residence too. The operator in this case has to ensure that the money you use to play on the site originate from a legitimate source, such as salary for example and not from shady activities or black-listed countries.

I do not recall correctly but it is possible that Stars are required to withhold funds if you cannot prove their origin at least until you do so, and they are definitely required to report such incident to MGA, if that's the jurisdiction you're playing from.

If anything this just shows that Stars are doing what they are required to do as a regulated gaming business. In case you care about the sensitive data you send to them, your data is protected by GDPR and EU, so only Stars compliance officers/specialists that are working with such data will have access to it, it won't be available to an average customer service rep.