Did you enable Pokerstars PIN or SMS verification? If not, then why blame PokerStars for not forcing you to do what you could have thought of yourself?

Pretty sure there a poopload of players that don't even know about pin or sms verifications. And most of them are recs.

The PokerStars client does have this option - it is called "SMS Validation".

This is 100% the case - in this very thread, where people are sufficiently passionate about account security to contribute to public discussions on the issue, people do not know of the features that are available to them to secure themselves. Clearly, this is an unhealthy situation.

Didn't realise there wasn an option for this, I'll have to check it out. Wouldn't be surprised if most people didn't know it was there. I'm probably more secure than many people as I have the RSA token but I'll use this option as well.

It would be interesting to know if anyone who uses pin entry and SMS Validation has had an attempted hack on their account with the correct password.

If the only hacks are where no extra levels of security are in place, then you would have to wonder if there are some possible insider security issues. The fact that the account of the last poster had been inactive for some time too is a bit of a red flag too perhaps?

I agree. But people do have their own responsibility, PokerStars isn't a nanny and provides all the tools to keep your account safe. While I'd wish nobody gets hacked, when it does happen it's because of people's own ignorance.

When PokerStars introduced the extra security options all players got notified, and when setting a new account up it's clearly displayed as option. Those that 'don't know' apparently didn't care at that time and are definitely not passionate about account security.

The first range of account security enhancements were implemented in 2008/2009. The SMS Validation thing was introduced in the early 2010s.

I think that various public documents show that the average life of an active player account in online gaming is 3 months. This isn't a communication strategy that can be deployed once every ten years, therefore.

When you open a new account, you get notified of these options aswell, multiple times even. Everyone who thinks a single password is enough, doesn't matter how strong it is, should watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U-RbOKanYs

@8gameisfun that was pretty educational, thanks for the link.

How does this notification take place? I opened a new account recently, and don't recall any such notification.

My very first post here. I found this thread because unfortunately my Stars account felt victim to the same scam many others described.

I lost all my balance. Stars won't take any liability. I just don't understand how this happened? My husband bought a new computer and installed it fresh with the latest version of Sophos and Anti Malware Bytes. We did not have a computer for a while and didn't play during that time, about 2 months.

After setting it all up we were interested to play some poker again. Played a few tables and went to sleep. During that night we received an email that someone had accessed the account from an unknown location and device. To our surprise all the funds were scammed.

Now, my question how is this possible? Stars claimed the hijacker knew the exact password, which is a complex generated password by KeePass. This must be a joke right? A keylogger on a fresh computer with the latest security software.

Anyway, just wanted to share my story. Not planning on using their service again. The security is flawed. Foreign ip address and device were able to transfer funds without a two step verification?

If the scammer knew your password it doesn't have to have anything to do with your new PC as it could have been retrieved from your old PC. KeePass isn't always safe either: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/hacker-...ews-21782.html

Hmm, you knew you didn't have 2-step verification enabled as there was only 1 step when you played from your new PC right? If Stars offers 2-step but you don't use it, then who's security is flawed?

Clearly Stars. There are plenty of sites of different types these days where logins from all new devices are confirmed by email.

Well excuse me. I didn't know about the 2-step verification. Even so, why isn't it enabled on default? We are talking about money here, that belongs to you and Stars should secure it every way they can. Why is there no security system that automatically blocks or freezes the account whenever someone from the other side of the world tries to access my account and succeeds? Especially when that same unknown person or device wants to transfer the balance? Their security is just flawed. Why didn't this happen to my tilt account or other platforms where I play?

Not sure if this the right place to post, I play on pokerstars under alias stroggos_nz. My pokerstars account got hacked recently, and 8K$ was withdrawn to a neteller account that wasn't mine.

I was actually aware that something was up as soon as the hacker started withdrawing money from my account, since i got an email sent to me.

They withdrew $10, then $3000, then $4999.

The annoying thing is i sent an email to pokerstars 13 minutes after receiving this email, hoping they would check it out and freeze my account if someone else had in fact withdrawn money from my account. (I wasn't able to realize if $10 had actually been withdrawn from my account or not since it wasn't a noticeable difference from my bankroll).



Anyway, after sending this email, 8 hours later they made 2 more withdrawals



then finally 4 more hours after that, pokerstars finally froze my account sending this email



So it's very frustrating to see that if pokerstars had not been painfully slow on this issue and responded to my email more quickly, I would be $8000 richer.

I havn't unfrozen my account yet as im working on improving security. I used to have an rsa token up until about a year ago but had to deactivate it as i lost it.

JFC man.. will Stars reimburse you the hacked funds?

I don't know, it's been 6 days since it happened and i keep asking stars how they are getting along with the processor and they just say 'no info yet'

I am sorry to hear that. Hopefully they can do something about it.

Did you had any type of 2 step authentication like pin on your account?

Sorry and annoyed to hear about Stars' disgustingly slow responses and I hope you can get your money back, but considering the limits you play, not having an RSA boggles the mind.

how would the hacker link a neteller account to my stars account?

This. Imo you need to make the withdrawal to the same account you deposited with. If stars really managed to let them withdraw not more than once to different account then they should 100% refund you. But they prolly wont because it's somehow allways your fault.

yeah im not too sure with nettellar acc being linked without a deposit from said account, but thought it was similar to any debit card or whatever.

hope you get it sorted, seems crazy to have any decent money on stars without rsa token

yeah, yeah. expected this reply about it being crazy not to have rsa token. TBH i had one for about 7-8 years and then got comfortable, after losing it i wasn't really playing poker at the time so i kinda forgot it when i started playing again. Still, stars should be crucified for how they handled this so far. They said the person withdrew from a different IP address, I don't get how they let someone withdraw from a different country from where i was playing 10 minutes earlier, 3 times. There isn't any sort of auto alert for this?

Seems so easily avoidable on their end.

You obviously done goofed as well, but that's a separate argument from stars' responsibility.

I was thinking about whether there's a difference between using the cashier from a different IP and playing (which I'd have to assume would snap lock your account). I think there is.

What they really should have given the amount of money we pay them is a phone line you could call and immediately freeze a withdrawal in a situation like this. Nothing worse than waiting for an email when it's urgent.