I can think of about 10 people from top of my head,but I am not really sure about the total number of course. It started when they hacked one player form our forums, he posted some info in his blog, we published an article with warning for other players and sudenly more people were reporting the same...

They don't need to stop unexpected logins from another country. A lot of people travel, myself included, and i don't want to be blocked every time i travel and try to log in.

They need to stop letting people buy in with credit cards that don't match the used's name and they need to stop letting these shady ****ers insta cash out.

That prob would be a bad thing, sometimes i go on vacation and want to play And probably so many others. But they could block as default and then quickly reactivate after we send an email to support.

re: my post above that a lot of people have discussed, while others have distorted -- no, I meant IP but sure MAC-address could serve the same purpose.

But drop the silly notion that something is useless if it doesn't provide a bulletproof solution to every. single. use case. "But what if I want to travvvelll and I forget to turn off my IP-restriction!!???" I have an RSA token...guess what: when I leave it at the office, I can't log in and play. Too bad, so sad. There's ALWAYS going to be a scenario you can paint where Joe Blow wants to play poker, but can't because of the enhanced security he has enabled. And you know what? That's a good thing. That's the tradeoff he makes if he wants to sleep well at night without worrying about his 4-figure+ balance on Stars.

Yes, some people have dynamic IPs, and guess what: for those people this would not help, but that doesn't mean that we should disregard an entire easily-implementable safeguard because it would ONLY solve for people who play from a static IP. You don't think every mid-stakes+ regular with a static IP would jump to enable this the first day it was offered? If a vaccine were invented that cured cancer but only for people with blonde hair, would you decry it as not worth pursuing? There are imperfections and drawbacks to more or less any proposed solution...if there weren't, there would be zero hackings. We're talking about incremental improvements made over time. And if the most potent criticism of an easily implemented self-imposed IP-restriction is but it won't work for 100% of players, and hackers could still conceivably circumvent it under certain scenarios, then what are the sites waiting for, FFS?

This is the most shocking discovery to me.
I have a PS account since early 2003 and have deposited and cashed out many times over the years and up until this thread I was 100% confident that they don't let you add any kind of account that's not in your name for deposits and cashouts, and cashouts were only allowed after minimum of 24hrs after deposit if i remember correctly.

This whole thing is just absurd.

When customer service is responding with as we see flat out LIES are the victims really liable. Not in any court.




Hello XXX,

Thank you for your email.

Please keep in mind that our cashout policy is designed to prevent this: when depositing using a credit card, a player needs to wait 48 hours to be able to request a cashout regardless of the cashout option they would like to use.

Feel free to contact us at any time should you require ever further assistance, we are always happy to help in any way we can.

Regards,




Hello XXX,

Thank you for your email and for allowing us to be of assistance.

PokerStars provides a very high level of security for our players. One of the ways we ensure our players' safety is to impose a 48 hour delay in cashing out from a player's last purchase. This feature is designed to protect against collusion and fraud.

Another reason for the 48 hour wait is because some cashouts cannot be credited back until the original deposit has settled.

This practice is used by other poker sites as well. For information about our Cashout Policy please visit our web site, here:

http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/real-money/

There are several deposit options that does not apply to the 48 hours cashout restriction however credit card deposit is not one.


Hello XXX,

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately we cannot grant you the ability to cash out within 48 hours of your last deposit. We cannot make reference to content published on other sites like "2p2" or any other.

As mentioned previously, PokerStars provides a very high level of security for our players. One of the ways we ensure our players' safety is to impose a 48 hour delay in cashing out from a players' last purchase. This feature is designed to protect against collusion and fraud.

Yes I agree considering they had me send them copys of my passport and bank statements to withdraw the first time also makes you wonder how this could happen. It makes it seem like after the first security checks it would be relatively easy to multi account and use your card after the initial account creator verifys their identity.

Yes the first cashout years ago was a chore but since then I've had fast cashouts with no problems at all.
I've never used CC I deposit and withdraw directly to my bank account from the Netherlands, deposits are instant and cashouts take only 2 days but I'm pretty sure I had to wait 24 hours after last deposit in order to withdraw last time I tried which it was like 2 months ago.
And the standard for CC deposits seems to be 48hrs as seen in the emails above.
So I have no idea what's going on, when was this changed and why.

love the hacker, hate the hack.

Hacking is like variance, embrace it as a cost of being stupid enuf to keep large amts of money, on some unseen mythical location known as cyber space.

For the very few who actually get more money back then deposit, well done, for the overwhelming majority who dont, learn to hack.

Most of the people hacked had little to no money in their account?

I suggest you go back to lurking.

GFY you effin DB. Yeah, the hacker is cool, everyone should learn to do it and those idiot grinders have been taught a "valuable life lesson" by this cool hacker. Standard idiot response from a standard idiot.

Yer a scumbag.

Please ban FOREVER.

Hackers are obviously getting established accounts because they found a hole in pokerstars security related to these accounts.

The same fraud wouldn't work on a new account. Otherwise they would just use new accounts.

How pokerstars can take no responsibility when hackers are exploiting their security procedures I don't really understand.

People lost money they didn't even have in their account. Read more post less!

Hopefully the 2p2 Podcast will address this today in a BIG WAY objectively and with concern on behalf of ALL players and ALL accounts with maybe an interview with Lee Jones or the head of security that was in the videos?

Simple solution to stop all unauthorized withdrawals from a hacked account:

Player requests withdrawal through client.
Site then sends an automated email to the player's registered email account on file.
Player must then click the link in email authorizing the withdrawal. The link contains a unique token number that corresponds to the withdrawal request. Email also includes a link that if player did not initiate this withdrawal, click here and account immediately gets locked.

The IP address that clicks the authorization email, must be the same IP address that initiated the withdrawal request .


This method would literally stop all unauthorized withdrawal requests dead in their tracks, unless the hacker has access to both the victims poker account, and email accounts. It wouldn't stop chip dumps, but that's another story.

Do you believe them???

------------------

Thank you for your email enquiring about the price of the RSA Security Token.

It costs $95 (6000 FPPs) to PokerStars to purchase and distribute each RSA Security Token. PokerStars provides a large and generous subsidy to reduce the cost of the RSA Security Token to players, dependent upon your VIP Level.

The price of the RSA Security Token is as follows:

Supernova Elite: Free (PokerStars pays the full cost)
Supernova: 1,500 FPPs
PlatinumStar: 2,000 FPPs
GoldStar: 2,500 FPPs
SilverStar: 3,000 FPPs
BronzeStar: 4,500 FPPs

Were you expecting it too be free?

Does your ISP give you a free AntiVirus and Firewall software too protect you on the internet services they provide? Of course not.

Why should pokerstar's give _free_ protection for their services.

Yes when you're a multi-billion dollar company making millions of dollars daily, I expect nothing but the best when it comes to security.

There should be multiple protocols when dealing with monetary transactions.

It's actual absurd you're siding with pokerstars here.

The average user doesn't need an RSA token.

So yes, I do see why pokerstars wouldn't hand them out for free.

They offer SMS verification. That seems fine for most people. The real issue here is that pokerstars isn't doing enough to protect their customers who don't opt in to SMS verification or security tokens.

They already have sufficient and appropriate levels of protection available to prevent accounts from being compromised.

The problem here is what happens after accounts become compromised. It seems there is a giant hole in their security at that point. Maybe I'm wrong, but they haven't said anything to make me believe otherwise.

Accounts will be compromised no matter the means used to protect them.

Well considering that they're blaming users for not protecting their accounts with the security options available on PokerStars such as the RSA token, then yes, it should be free.

I highly doubt pokerstars are paying 95 dollars for the RSA tokens. Everyone using pokerstars.dk (Denmark) have to log in using a code card. The code cards are mailed to everyone in Denmark for free and used for bank transfers, personal data etc. as well. If you want to, you can buy a token similar to the RSA tokens for about 14 dollars and use it instead of the code cards. More countries should do this.

Actully Rogers does offer protection that comes with their internet service. And i think given the amount of fpp's it does cost, even given the small amount for a regular player, for the weekend warrior or casual player that is still a years worth of fpp's for some. And why would they think of purchasing that if they don't play much? We now know, because even 0$ in your pokerstars account could cost you thousands of dollars. Sad but just having a pokerstars account in your name EMPTY can cost you thousands in 2015.

How about Pokerstars mass emails this info to ALL and educates them. I had to warn and educate several casual playing friends today on how to use the sms feature. They were all surprised that feature existed. I think its time for Pokerstars to man up and be honest to its customers. Send a mass email highlighting how in lieu of recent hacked accounts and the sole liability they put on their customers for this happening, detail processes for securing accounts and educate how to do so. Put a littld bit of that advertising fund in to fraud awareness on behalf of its customers

ISP give you free anti virus and security software in the UK but there are also free alternatives available.