Here is the deal:

1st May I have received an e-mail from PockerStars security support about the fact of violation their security terms. At the same moment my account on PS.com (managaaa) was banned and possibility to enter tournaments for real money on PS.es (KumarOrangutan) was stopped.

The text of the letter was the following (in short):

Quote:

'' We've got the proofs that you have got the access to other accounts (managaa and ugin118). providing the detailed information will help to understand better how you are related to these accounts and will help to solve the problem. please answer the following questions:
- Did anyone other than the registered owner have access to the above accounts?
- Have You ever accomplished the entrance and played with some other account , apart from yours? If Yes, please provide details.
- Have You allowed anyone to use Your account? If Yes, please provide details.
- Do You have any additional information on this issue that You would like us to take into account?
Please assume that we have the certain information on the issue so we ask You to cooperate with us for solving this problem. Any attempts to hide any information will lead to ban of your account’’

Answering this letter I explained that the first account belongs to my brother (managaa) but he hasn’t played for a while already and I do not have an access to this account.
Then the second account (ugin118) belongs to a person I barely know: it’s a guy who belongs to the same backing fond - FunFarm.ru (the same thing as BitB, Pokarr etc.), and for now there are more than 200 people there as well. We even haven’t spoken to each other before this situation. There were few withdraw between us within the obligations of our backing fond (FunFarm). The same obligations are in all the other backing fond, so it’s not a big deal. Besides there were a lot of withdraw with another accounts within the same backing fond and it’s all right. So I could not have any access to his (or anyone else’s) account!!!

After that (one week later) another letter comes.
Long story short:

Quote:

‘’we have warned you that we have curtain evidence and asked you to cooperate with us. We have also warned you that any attempts to hide any information will lead to ban of your account.
Unfortunately your explanation does not match your information and it all proofs that:
User managaaa had an access to account ugin118

(here comes an exact citation)
Taking into account all information available to us, including information received from You, technical data from our reports and other information, we can only conclude that You have confirmed the violation, which will be displayed on the status of Your account.

For further consideration of this matter, we would like to give You one last opportunity to cooperate and explain to us the reasons for Your violation of our terms Of participation. If You cooperate, this will be taken into account during the final decision on Your account, but please note that Your cooperation does not guarantee any exact decision in our investigation.’’

So I’ve been accused in the violation, though I haven’t done anything , especially trying to get access to some random guy! It even doesn’t make any sense!

In my answer to this e-mail I explained once again that me (managaaa) and ugin118 have nothing in common but one pokerschool (FunFarm), and I suggested that the only link between us might have been the same IP (as we both use VPN soft for entering the Cashier on PS.es, as our providers in Russia does not allow to open it). Though VPN soft was used ONLY for entering Cashier, money withdraw or deposit but nothing more (never played with VPN on).
I assured the representative of PockerStars security support that it’s a mistake, I have never even thought of trying to get access to any account. I assured that I’m totally ready for any cooperation and gave my personal phone number to contact me.

As far as I know (as he told me) ugin118 has provided more or less the same information and he has no idea what’s happening as well.

One more week later the last letter comes:
It is something unbelievable!! I have NO IDEA what’s going on!
I guess PokerStars just follow their instructions, using the pattern investigation strategy.
But it does not mean that I have no right for a deep normal investigation! I’m ready to provide any personal information possible. I’m not afraid of it as I know that I have done NOTHING WRONG! There could be no violation from my side!

Could you imagine me writing all this without a HUGE sense of injustice towards me! There are no financial claims as PokerStars do not block my money and give me opportunity to withdraw it.
I have a perfect history with PS.com since 2015 and PS.es since the opening of the room!
It’s a fight for justice and opportunity to keep playing on the best online recourse of online poker.

Guys you are MY LAST HOPE!!
Maybe you have any ideas what can be done.
I convincingly ask the representatives of PokerStars to pay attention on my situation and help with solving this mistake.
The one thing I can also say is that if I were guilty I would be happy just to get my money and would never wright all these stuff!!!!!!!!

P.S. I add screenshots of the e-mails below (sorry it’s in Russian, but I tried my best to translate it well here)

So that is your account

Riiiiiiiiight

Appreciate English is probably not your first language but you're contradicting yourself very early in your post, then go on to talk about VPNs, stables, etc etc, and you have no idea why they might have dropped the banhammer?

He has 'managaaa' account and his brother has 'managaa'.
Wise choise, i know, but in later emails from stars they just used correct username of TS.

You can see that in those emails in russian, but as i understand the issue it's not related to his brother account at all.

I was banned for the same reason - "User managaaa had an access to account ugin118". But I did not give anyone access to my account and it is protected by a security token. I do not understand the reason for the ban.

You can notice that there are 2 different accounts (managaa and managaaa). As far as I know my brother doesn't use his account for few years as he has lost interest to poker in general.
Ye, maybe that was a silly thing to call them much alike but as you also can see it has been mentioned only in the first e-mail, after they asked only about managaaa account (that is mine wich is banned).

OP,

I am making no judgement on whether you broke their rules, or whether PokerStars was justified here.

Did they confiscate any money from you?

If they did not confiscate any money from you, then realistically, you can only hope that they reconsider their decision. You can help that by asking them to escalate* the decision for further review.

If they did confiscate money from you, then in addition to seeking an internal re-review from PokerStars, it might be worth considering to appeal to their regulator. This might be helpful in the case of your Spanish account, but if your .COM regulator is under their Maltese license, then you're likely to have not much hope. The Maltese Gambling Authority is a pretty widely discredited organisation in the eyes of many players, so that might be tough for you.


*Disclosure: Around 7 years ago, I wrote the Security escalation/re-review policy for PokerStars. I don't know if they still use it, I stopped working for PokerStars several years ago

Stars allowed cashouts from both 'managaaa' and 'ugin118' accounts

All accounts started in the beginning of 2010.

Mod IP check?

both managaa and managaaa registered in 2010, one plays on a regular basis till 10.03.2015 (no games since then) playing close to 5k games, the other account from 2010-2015 has less than 150 games, the 2nd account then starts playing again on 13.03.2015 and start doing volume going forward, dude, really? like really?

We will never hear from the OP again imo

i understand where you're coming from but in correspondence with stars support they don't ask questions about 'managaa' account starting from second email.

reasoning for ban was connection with 'ugin118' account and not 'managaa'.

if one of his stories is most likely a bull**** (his brother playing on acc managaa and i am guessing this just by checking sharkscope, imagine how much evidence stars can have about it) then how likely do you think the other story is and if stars will believe it
i'm just going to say if stars, site with by far the best security team says they have evidence you did something wrong, just tell them 100% truth from the beginning.