Hey guys,

I apologize if I'm not posting this in the proper place so if it needs to be moved or anything like that just let me know...

I'll try to keep it as brief as I can to get the main point out there and if anybody wants/needs any evidence(emails between pokerstars and I etc etc) that can easily be provided.

Somebody using a Russian IP address(I live just outside of Vancouver,BC in Canada) installed a key logger of sorts onto my laptop and somehow followed my password and such and logged into my account and stole my entire roll of $2900 American($3750 Canadian, or in other words... a lot of money for someone like me)

This may not sound like a lot of money to a lot of people but for me, that money really meant something. I used to be grinder back in the day who would log on and quite easily win in the 200NL games on Stars, Full tilt, UB, Doyle's room etc etc but obviously along the way the game of online poker passed me by. Well last year in January 2018(maybe late December 2017) I deposited 200 to my stars account and after winning a small tourney I had about 1000 in my account and proceeded to rededicate myself to studying. Watching run it once vids and such and starting to have some goals in poker for the first time in years.

Well, after a year of playing (certainly not many hrs overall compared to legit grinders) I got it up to 2900 American and was only really starting to play regularly towards the end of last year(2018). I was extremely proud of myself to have been able to finally seem as though I could hang with the regs in Zoom NL50. Normally just two tabling as that seemed to be all my brain could handle without timing out all the time.

Anyways long story short, the person logged into my account and proceeded to chip dump my entire roll to 3 accounts and then immediately cashed it all out.

So here's my main beefs as obviously Pokerstars has stated that they will not reimburse me even one dime due to the fact that the hacker knew my password and it was apparently my security that was compromised.

I'll take some blame for my computer issues. However the following are facts...

From the time the person logged into my account, chip dumped,cashed out all 3 accounts and got away... it had been less than 4 hrs by the time I caught the email from stars about a foreign log in, notified them and they did a full investigation and wrote me back explaining exactly what had happened and that they wouldn't be paying me back any of it.

4 hrs?!?! I understand honestly if it had been weeks or a month or even a few days... but you mean to tell me that stars can't do anything about this with the payment processors etc etc?

Now here's the real kicker. And these are 100% Pokerstars words and I have the email to prove it. They said the hacker logged onto my account and proceeded to Chip dump(never mind that this act alone is cheating and against the rules) to 3 FRAUDULENT ACCOUNTS!!! Pokerstars words... right there!

They literally tell me that the person dumped to 3 FRAUDULENT accounts and cashed out all within less then 3 or 4 hrs(maybe faster I only know my timeline of the log in alert and their email back to me explaining it all which all took place in less than 4 hrs) and that there is nothing they can do about it and the payment processors nothing also??? In that time frame?!

Cashing out for me in the past has always been a headache. How can 3 fraudulent accounts get in and out that quick untraceable with no culpability on the processors who allowed legit fraudsters to do this and most importantly Stars themselves allowing fraudulent accounts to operate and wreak havoc in that short of time with no recourse? That's frankly scary to me for s company who is supposed to be so legit. If my damn Visa gets stolen and they steal 5k worth of stuff Visa would just cover the entire thing with no issues. And stars and the processors are handcuffed in less than 4 hrs?

So they hacked my account... played poker in a manner that is considered cheating(chip dumping) and likely at a stake that wouldn't be consistent with my activities on the site and to 3 fraudulent accounts that pokerstars allowed fully to operate on their site no problem and get away Scott free? This is ok? I deserve to have my entire roll of almost 4k Canadian gone for this? Especially with how quickly it was all identified?

I want pokerstars to take some ownership here. I'm willing to take ownership of my computers security. Why can't pokerstars take ownership of everything else that happened here on their end? And the payment processors that they work with having zero culpability in all this also? Honestly, it's complete bull****.

I've fortunately been in contact a bit ago with Joe Ingram and he told me he'd be interested in having a small talk on his podcast or him doing a video on it, but honestly first and foremost I just want my damn roll back man. I believe there is enough culpability on Stars part here to give me majority of if not all of my money back. If they can pump all that extra money into the 25k PSPC this year, certainly they can admit that they or their processors also played a roll in this and do the right thing. For a company so seemingly reputable as Stars, this should not be ok

Thanks to anyone who took the time to actually read this and I'm sorry for my long windedness,

My screen name on Pokerstars is vegan19 in case anyone wanted to know,

Thanks,

If anyone out there can lend a helping hand I'd be most grateful

Wow man this really suck, wish I could something besides wishing you the best of luck. I will be following this story for sure. Glgl

This is an interesting story, though you did not provide the actual emails. Go ahead and do that (always a good idea in these situations).

How did they get around your RSA token or other Pokerstars account security you set up? Those only cost $30-40 or so (and some are free) so I assume you had it given your balance, which was not a trivial amount.

This will probably make me sound like an idiot but I'm not super tech savvy and I am being honest when I say, that I had no clue that pokerstars offered any extra security outside of a password. I know how that almost delegitimizes me here haha but I just genuinely didn't know.

I now have a pin, and an sms or something set up? Not entirely sure what that is but my understanding is that if I want to cash out in the future (or deposit even?) that I will receive a text message before hand with confirmation steps. But haven't had to use it yet since bankroll is gone.

Full disclaimer, I did after holding off for a bit deposit 200 the other day again cause I was dying to play and I can't remember if I had to confirm via text or not. I swear I'm not a total moron Haha I just have never known much about technology and only got my first smart phone a few years ago... I'm 33 as duck

As for the e-mails... I know I will figure it out but at this current moment I don't know how to share them to this specific thread. That said, if there is any reason to(like a mod asking or someone who can actually help/represent Stars) then I'm happy to go to the trouble.

Maybe I'm looking at that the wrong way and should just share them anyways. I'll do my best. Any idea what I click to get em on here?

Note: I set up a pin and sms because stars recommended I do so after the fact. I didn't know about it before hand but I'm aware that that is likely in many ways my own negligence. Again, I'm ok taking a hit for my end of things securitywise... I do however believe that stars and their payment processors are culpable in this due to their own words used


Thanks man, I just hope that Stars will admit that allowing this all to happen in the time frame it did including the fraudulent accounts allowed to operate on their site was in fact partially their fault

The guy(or girl) needs a place to dump it all quickly and bail...and they happily provided such

Even less tech savvy than you. Just learned this week that 'Esc' key returns screen to normal, and that I can right click mouse for English translation. That said, even this American knows PS offers extra security, which everyone recommends most accounts should have. Kinda figured you were going to say you didn't have it. Still sucks that you were robbed.

Poopyypoop

Please post the e-mail exchanges you had with Stars, and we will go from there.

Online poker operators need to be more proactive in activating multi-factor authentication. It sounds like the entirely free SMS Authentication option that PokerStars offers would have entirely prevented this fraud.

How is this possible that 3 ghost accounts cashout and dissapear?, its not easy to setup accounts at Stars, you have to prove your identity to cashout and this takes time, this is maybe inside job, some employee of Stars stole you, there is no way to setup new identities everytime and steal like this that fast.

this sounds very curious to me but we do not have a full picture here yet

OP if you want this to go anywhere you need to:

-show pictures of all emails/interactions with stars

-create a timeline of events through proof so we can see exactly when and how everything occurred that you know about

-maybe ask for hhs from stars so we can see the timing of the chip dumping relative to the emails etc



It seems insane to me that any site can process a withdrawal within 4 hours and no longer be able to stop said withdrawal process from occurring. outside of bitcoin (which stars doesn't offer directly) any withdrawal process ive had on any site usually takes at least a couple business days to clear and be sent out.



If your recollection of events is accurate then you need to prove it here so we can all see the issue clearly. This is the place you want to do it as well because official stars employees can be directed here to look into the issue as well.

If you aren't being completely honest about the events then I wont be surprised if you avoid doing the things I listed above. Not being tech savvy is not an excuse. take screenshots and post it up. You can google how to do things in a few minutes and put some effort into showing us what truly happened.

Its 4k CAD, there's no reason you cant put a couple hours of effort into trying to get it back. If you are being honest and there is something to actually look into here, this community will help you, but only if you put in the effort needed.

i don't know much about the details, but depending on your country and the ewallet a cashout is done fairly quickly. idk much about the details, eg how long a merchant can cancel a transaction.

you can buy identities on the black market. or if you operate on a small scale you might just ask around in your local village.

you do realize, that the accounts were labelled "fraudulent" after the incident?

don't get me wrong, situation sucks, and i hope you get some of you money back. but what you did was grossly negligent. if i go to vegas, call some dodgy number and get robbed in my hotel room, it's still my fault and not the casinos.