Hi
Bit of a long post, cliff notes are on the end of the post, if you see the chick, you passed 'em.
This is a thread concerning a hack case that hit me this last Sunday.
After busting my roll on the SCOOPs before my exams started in June, I thought Id look for a freeroll and try my best to not to cut my wrists while I attempt to grind my way up to 500 dollar on Pokerstars. Id give myself 3 months to achieve this goal. I had it all planned out, and was going to start looking for a freeroll. Untill..
I log on to pokerstars to find that my password was not valid. I immediately become suspicious. I reset the password and rush to the cashier. Here I find a balance of 165 dollar.
This is just not possible..
I open the history and see that 2 VISA purchases have been made, one for 168 euro and one for 300 euro. I remember from earlier that the reference numbers last 4 numbers are the last 4 numbers on the VISA card. Still not entirely convinced its not my card I immediately email Pokerstars, asking them what the hell happened. Its only then when I realize that I dont even have emails about changing a password previously, nor do I have cashier receipts in my inbox.
They freeze my account and investigate.
Later that night I get email back, saying that my account was indeed accessed by a new computer on a new IP address that had never been used before. The VISA card was a card issued in Denmark, so not mine either. They ask me to set up a new emailaccount and send in a proof of identity. I do so and we continue our correspondence on the new emailaccount.
The total amounts to 591 dollars and change. That amount was chipdumped down to 160+ dollars (who were still in my account) to a player Mininips, who was duped in this scandal too.
Monday evening I open my e-mail again and find another e-mail from DiegoS (who was most helpful through all this). This time I was not so happy.
DiegoS informed me that even though I had nothing to do with this hack, not me behind the computer, not me chipdumping, not my card, I now have to pay for the 431 dollar missing.
Since the funds have already been cashed out to the hackers, the money is no longer in the system and therefore they find themselves in a deficit, and I would be the person to settle that deficit.
I dont think so.
Why on earth would I ever even CONSIDER paying for their security breach?
I find it hard to believe that a multimillion dollar business like Pokerstars has never thought of covering themselves for frauds like this, or at least have a reserve built in in their business system. Surely I am not the first player that ends up with his account hacked.
What worries me the most is that the guy I had on the phone, who explained to me exactly what happened over and over again told me that there is a pattern emerging in these types of hack cases.
Next to that I was very surprised to learn that there was no screening for this cashout, nor was there even a minor flag raised when an account from Belgium, that was listed with a Belgian address, and has only ever used a Belgian VISA card to deposit money.. deposits money with a Danish Visacard.
Also interesting to learn was that if the deposits are not being disputed I would actually come out a winner here, and would be able to keep the 165 dollars in my account, thanks to a Danish person who overlooked the 468 euros on his VISAbill.. probably a 500 to 1 chance of that happening, but still, this type of logic is a nice example of the ridiculousness of the way this case is being handled.
Id like to conclude this post by pointing out that I use wireless internet distributed by my Router with a built in firewall. I only use my laptop, which is equipped with BitDefender and Ad-ware, both of those run scans on my computer more than weekly. My password is a random combination of vowels and consonants that dont make any linguistic sense, nor have emotional value to me. Just good old plain and simple nonsense sequence. Just to make sure people dont think its my own damn fault for picking my birthday as a password or something.
Cliff notes
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1. Account gets hacked and 468 dollars is deposited under fraudulent circumstances with a Danish Visacard. I am Belgian, so not mine.
2. I report it as soon as I find out, about 3 hours later
3. Pokerstars investigates and freezes account
4. Confirms the hack, lets me know the IP address and computer used are both brandnew, which indicates a high probability of me not having done it.
5. They confirm chipdumping took place and then acknowledge that there is no gain on my part.
6. Pokerstars already cashed out the funds to the fraudulent party, again with no flags raised
7. There is a pattern emerging in these hacks, I was not the only one involved, this is a recent trend.
8. Since they cannot recuperate the funds from the fraudulent party, they now want to recuperate them from me. My not being involved seems irrelevant.
Threadsavers
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Video of that stupid kid Justib Bieber getting knocked in the head by a water bottle on stage
Some of the fine things Belgium has to offer: