hello, my account been frozen for no reason, cant play, cant cashout for a week now. no reply from support, no explanation.

Been playing on pokerstars for over 10years, recently played a lot during covid in november / december, but not so much this year.. last week tried to play and got this message:

Your account has been temporarily restricted pending a routine security investigation.

These checks are usually completed within minutes, after which time your account will either be re-opened with full functionality or you will receive an email explaining required next steps.

waited for few days, but nothing.. googled to find out if there are more people with this issue and there are many.

https://www.reddit.com/r/poker/comme...n_temporarily/

https://twitter.com/chitarov/status/1148401070139482112

have you been hit with "routine security check 'usually completed within minutes''? and how long you been waiting in limbo? what to do now? i tried to email support, no reply.. i kinda need to play / cashout to pay bills.. what is going on?

help

That tweet is from 2019... But yeah I have faced that few times and it took like 3-5 days to solve and this was when the support actually responsed to emails. The most common advice is to dm @starssupport and allso don't keep big part of your bankroll or networth at stars. You can search here and you will find several complaints accounts being locked and no response from support unfortunately.

thanks Esa_Perse, tried dm the twitter and got a reply, that my issue been forwarded to relevant department.
after 2 weeks they asked for utility bill and my selfie... :/

i guess its about a "suspicious tranfer of funds". so will see what happens next...

been a month that my account been locked for "routine security check, done within minutes"

after first 2 weeks they asked for my id / selfie / utility bill..
2 weeks passed and nothing..

no reason, nothing... my tournament tickets expired, lost rakeback from chests, my money locked for a month and cant work...

how did pokerstars turn from best customer support to worst is a mystery..

I ve had this exact same issue last year..first time no reply for 3 weeks.. then asked me id/bankstatment/etc even though they had it all since I was playing for more than 10 years..After 1 month they opened my account but also lost all tickets and exclusive poker challenge no compensation.

Then after a few months they did it AGAIN..same thing like before but now I got super angry, spammed their social media, sent many e mails since I was fuming and this led to permanent account closure with no explanation !!!!...they did clear my account and sent me the money which shows I did nothing wrong.

After half a year I sent an e mail saying they should open my account back as I did nothing wrong and I dont want to play on other accounts which is very easy..They again asked for ID and re instated my account like nothing happened !

My advice just wait and dont be aggressive in your communication as they are waiting for any reason to shut you down especially if you are a winning player who cashes out frequently..

Depending on location this might have to do with deposit limits being exceeded.. As it turns out they did this to me for a 500 bucks deposit which apparently I had to show proof for, even though they closed my account 3 months after the deposit and only after I ran it up to 10k and started withdrawing!!!, not immediately after the deposit like they should.. so basically u can deposit and if you loose its ok but if you run it up and want to withdraw then it is an issue !!!

I would be really careful playing on an account that was previously permanently closed, it just sounds like a disaster waiting to happen

I would get an email escalated to a senior manager in whatever department originally permanently closed your account to confirm that the previous permanent closure was a mistake and that you will not have any issues going forward on your account due to this permanent closure

Having similar problem as the OP. Account is not locked but I was asked for documents after an withdrawal and sent them right away. Meanwhile one month has passed and the money is nowhere to be seen (not on my PS account and not on my e-wallet) and I got no awnser to my subsequent e-mails.

To remember what PokerStars was 5/10years ago and what it has become is sad. I've been playing there for 17 years but it's unlikely I'll ever play there again. Not that they care.

This was surprising to me also as I had previously received many e mails confirming my account is permanently closed.

Yet 6 months after they re opened it without any sort of comment to what happened. Since re opening I have deposited a small amount like 200 and withdrew a couple of times already so I can see what is happening and till now there were no issues. The only thing missing is an exclusive poker challenge I was receiving every month and now its gone maybe I got blacklisted of some sort for bonuses .

I have actually only once heard about an account closed being re instated at PS so I guess I ll just go with the flow and not tell them they are ignorant and incompetent anymore as I strongly believe my permanent closure was a support agent not dealing with that kind of reality being told to him.

And besides I honestly feel safer on my account rather than a friend s or girlfriend s account which is exactly what I told them when I asked for re opening my account : open my account or I ll just get a new one every month and clear your bonus till you open mine and they did.

they close my account and stole all my money. for no reason at all. i dont get it..

"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,

--
i havent dont any of that.. i dont get it.. how is this real.
i traded 10k btc for stars funds in skype group.. so i could play spins.. after few months they asked about this transaction and about guy who send me this funds.. i told them i just traded with him so i could play spins and send them my id/bank details/photo they asked..
boom account closed, funds seized.. what have i done?

all gone? for what? holy smoke.. help please

post all emails with pokerstars here. Email them and ask for your account balance to be returned to you.

post email when they email back with their response. also try tweeting them or dming them via social media (may speed your case up)

Have you contacted the person you traded with? has anything been placed on their account like a block?

also what is clause 5 and / 11.17 ;

thanks, i will follow up with asking about the funds.. they are still in my account which is permanently locked..

send dm to twitter, they responded fast before, but not sure if they can help with security issue.

i ll try to get back to person who i traded with.. its been few months ago.. it is standart high stakes skype group, where people trade funds between sites to play highstakes.. i never knew stars have issue with this...? they allow transfer funds between players to play poker right?

i have no idea what i did wrong. been playing for 11 years.. over 250k tournaments played on stars only.. pro player my whole life.. everybody knows me in community.. pokerstrategy coach for 5 years. never cheated or any of that stuff..

super weird.

Is it possible that the person you traded with is having issues with stars? Like he owes money or something. I believe you can find 2+2 few stories where a player is banned because he had business with such player. Is he still playing stars?

The most disgusting part of these fund related accounts frozen for investigation is that they occur a couple of months AFTER the incident and not immediately like it should. So basically they let u a few weeks or months to see if you loose ur funds and only then do they proceed if u still have the money. But if u loose them fast it s not a problem then right???..

Why would it matter if the player looses the funds or not? It's not like stars gets to keep them unless he punts them to slots. In most cases a player binks something and when making a withdrawal gets flagged.

looks like you traded with someone who was not legit. happens all the time to people who do no research and then some have accounts closed & balances forfeited

mike3famous is also suspended/locked

there are 0 google results available when you search for "mike3famous" or "mike3famous poker", which would normally be quite odd for someone trying to legitimately trade 5 figures worth of online poker funds

I very much doubt that you get in contact with this person again

if you have actually played over 250k tournys on stars, then ask for your case to be reviewed by a manager stating that you will be happy to forfeit the $10K received (as its probably fraudulent), you will only trade with people you actually know & trust going forward (or not trade at all!), and hope that they let you continue playing on the site

I do not know you

thanks for advice..
i guess i will get my money back.. i dont know..

Hoping you get your account funds returned.

If the funds were reported as proceeds of fraud then do pokerstars have a responsibility for that? I mean they allow the person to deposit and they also allow the transfer feature. If op can prove his transaction with said individual i dont see why they should get to keep the money that is reported as proceeds of fraud (if this is even the case)

i dont even think there were some fraudelent money.. it is skype group of well known highstakes players, stable owners.. everyone is hard-vouched for. there are trades of 6digit figures..
i guess stars found this transaction of 10k suspisous by some automated software got flagged and they dont care so account closed and "hope you are doing well, bye"

maybe there is something else am not aware of, but its fine.. if i get my money back am alright not playing there anymore. sucks couse not many sites operating in slovakia.

Everything pmarrsouth still stands though.. though player in question coild be a cash player who has never played mtts...


It wouldnt suprise me if they decided to close your account mentioning trading btc. Whilst not illegal i cant imagine pokerstars would like that and its in their own intetests to keep in line with regulations. They dont offer btc deposits for a reason i assume.

I still think that your money should get returned to you. You probably raked this money so pokerstars have profited from it?

When did the transfer occur?


Got to be extra careful doing trades. Always do your own due diligence like pmarrsouth said google searching the player getting another hard vouch from a person that knows the person your doing the trade with.

Still not hard proof though esepcially when recieving money you are never 100% sure where its tracked back too.

Hope everything gets returned to you and u can find a site where you live to play.

If mike3famous account is locked then possibly something there is not right. Pmarrsouth will have checked this by trying to transfer funds to that person..

Get in touch with the person asap imo

Any updates?

not really.
month ago, they asked my bank details to send my remaining balance to.
sent them my info, they replied that its been forwarded to "team responsible for handling this matter"..
since then nothing.

they asked that am patient.. so i guess am waiting.

5 months later.. still havent got my money.. occasionally i send them email, but no reply. kinda lame.

Hello Peter,
Thank you for your follow-up.

We confirm that your case is still under review.

Rest assured that we'll contact you as soon as the review is complete.

Your account has now been fully reinstated, and you may now log in, enjoy our service and games, and carry out transactions as normal.

got my account back.. kinda ridic, but happy its over.. half a year, lots of documents, emails, slow / no replies.. loss of tickets, rakeback.. do not recommend