you are absolutely right, snowbird. poker players should not have to think about their security, it's pokerstars trading their reputation against any threat that might occur.

i just think 24/7 nannys are way cheaper than a cruise ship.

Hi, tragic to hear of course.
Me myself was not in Barcelona (thankfully, when I hear things like this), but a close friend of mine was, and he is not too savvy with computers so for his sake I would like to know the name of the hotel?
If he was staying at the same hotel I would like to warn him to have his computer checked out, as he is normally not the guy that reads threads in poker forums either.

Hope they catch the bastards that did this, and best of luck to you.

thanks for derailing the thread snowbird, bobo and others. Makes it easier to read

Edit BF: My pleasure; I know how on-topic this thread has been at all times. Seriously though, if you see a derail, just report the posts - I see that most of the derail has been deleted, which I'd have been happy to do myself as well and actually considered doing already last night. Not sure if you'll see this, but I didn't want to derail further with another post about it.

lol@the pokerstars boat

Thats the dumbest thing I heard ITT and the dumbest thing Pokerstars can do to "protect their reputation"

What If something happens on that boat of yours? Its the opposite of protecting the brand, its a huge liability.

NVG sure loves some drama, I'm sure it was unsettling jeans but why dont you just smash your laptop and get a new one.

People saying this is "tragic" and all sorts of **** is LOL, get over it, **** happens, you didn't take care of your secure items and they tried to hustle you maybe.

Next time maybe man up too the security guys or something instead of bitching about it on 2p2.

And all this talk about making twitter accounts and trip reviews just looks like your trying to talk this story up, which is just a standard everyday happening in countries around the world, do you even know how much **** gets stolen everyday.

even i agree to most of what you've said, i still think it was a good thing that jeans posted the problem, because others could be affected too

That sure helps all those victims that have been attacked in same way for god knows how many and who were infected unknowingly now and will be in future.

You DO realize this was almost certainly not just 2 cases only? And could have been going on for year(s) already...

!00% I agree and I think its great that jeans posted it, and fwiw i found the story very entertaining and was well written, and enjoyed the ongoing nvg detectives doing their work on the room numbers.

However, at the end of the day, there are way more worse things in life then this such as getting home invaded or beaten up buy 5 guys on the street after a night out. Even worse not having enough food or water to drink and being susceptible to diseases in a third world country.

Having a computer that you could smash that may have a trojan when you dont know and you can buy another one anyone is hardly worthy of something to be deeply upset about imo, everyday people get viruses on their computer all the time.

[QUOTE=tneva82;40093554]That sure helps all those victims that have been attacked in same way for god knows how many and who were infected unknowingly now and will be in future.

How so, unless Jeans is dumb enough to use his laptop to write his post.

As people have said in this thread if you are playing for those amounts, you should have a very very high level security on your laptop or computer and keep them secure at all times.

Google "laptops stolen from hotel room" and you'll see that this is an extremely common occurence even in high end hotels. And there's lots of advice about how to reduce the risk, even thogh you can't eliminate it. It's really surprising how many posters seemed to think that you can just leave a totally unsecured laptop in the open and not expect problems because the hotel is expensive. It's pretty well known amongst travellers that a hotel room offers little to no security and you don't just leave valuable items out in the open. Just like I hope no one would think that because you fly first class it's OK to put valuables in checked baggage because those bags get special attention. Everyone knows checked bags are subject to theft, despite the control measures in the system. Hotel rooms are the same way. Most of the time your stuff is safe, but you should never count on it

So that makes any suggestion that Poker Stars needs to take extra precautions or the manager of the hotel be fired ludicrous. It's about personal responsibility for your own stuff and how much risk your're willing to accept.

[QUOTE=set4vegas;40093617] So you assume only Jeans and the other guy got attacked? It's pretty damn likely these were not isolated cases and not only there was more computers infected _this time_ but it is also more than a fair chance there's been same happening in OTHER tournaments and will likely continue in future.

So no just dumping old computer and leave it at that would not do nothing to help others. Now making case public like he did actually might convince some others to take precautions and also seriously reconsider are they safe NOW.

Jeans and the other guy got warned. PS hasn't gone public with the information so if Jeans hadn't opened up NOBODY from that tournament would be aware of it. How many other computers got infected? How many of those still don't know(not everybody reads 2p2) and are carrying the malware?

This is the biggest problem with this case, you and other people like you not understanding the seriosity of the crime. A close friend of mine had this happened to him and lost 300 000 euros before taking his computer to an expert to notice it was contaminated. I also know other people who have lost more than this. I was extremely lucky to come back to my room at the right time so that a crime this serious did not work for me. As others mentioned should attempted murder or rape just be forgotten because nothing actually happened to the victim? And on your examples, it would have to be a very rough beating that I would not take it over a loss of 300 000 euros.

What worries me though is how likely it is the police will see it the way you do.


Here is my mails with Ritz-Carlton, so we know they already accepted the damage done and will not help in anyway:



Dear Mr Kyllönen,



We have received your comments, thank you for sharing your concerns with us.



First of all, I would like to assure you that we have all been taking your incident very seriously from the first moment. I sincerely regret that you felt we were not responding adequately to the issue. There have been different parties involved at the highest level, and we are taking all the necessary measures to avoid any inconvenience and maintain the highest level of security within the hotel. We are extremely appreciative and respectful of your responsibilities and the stakes involved in your situation.



Protecting privacy, security and comfort for our guests is our highest mission, rest assured that our teams are dedicated to meeting strict standards in our day-to-day operations and will continue to do so. I am concerned that we have lost your confidence in our brand and truly hope that we will have the opportunity to regain it in the future.



I remain available if you would like to discuss further, feel free to contact me personally.

To which I replied:

Thanks for the reply,

What kind of measures have to taken to avoid inconviences and maintain the highest level of security within the hotel after my visit?
After reading my story you know that your security manager did not know how to read the entry logs of the door to my hotel room and that 8 cameras were not working according to your security personnel, is this normal?

Jens

And just recieved this:

Dear Mr Kyllonen,

Thank you for enquiring. I have gathered all the teams involved with your event, we have reviewed the situation and our facilities and we are reinforcing even more our security procedures within the hotel.

We appreciate your displeasure about the situation, and we are taking every action to ensure this does not occur again.

Its not about his damn laptop, its a crime going on that has to be stopped. It could also end up far worse than just people getting robbed, for example Jeans returns 3 minutes earlier watching the guy putting his laptop back in place...

lol:

Arts Manager: blah "we are taking all the necessary measures to avoid any inconvenience and maintain the highest level of security within the hotel." more blah

Jeans: "What kind of measures have to taken to avoid inconviences and maintain the highest level of security within the hotel after my visit?"

Arts Manager: blah "we are reinforcing even more our security procedures within the hotel." more blah

Jeans.. Why haven't you checked your computer?
If there is no evidence of tampering then this whole thing can be explained as a series of mistakes.
If there is evidence then the 300,000 views and the alarm throughout the poker world are justified.

IIRC he said he was going to take it out. But there's the scary scenario Jeans himself mentioned. Laptop was removed TWICE. Why you think the second theft happened? Install more malware? Finish malware installation(which takes only matter of seconds so pretty tight abortion of plan first time...)? Or...Removing evidence while making it look like nothing was stolen, just your own mistake?

same maid stuck it on the floor again, and forgot it again? It's her habit.. she does it to a lot of people...
I don't know, but I do know hotels, and I know maids, and they do all sorts of weird ****.

You are lucky if your key never fails. Same if nobody like Housekeeping calls at random times to see if you are in, or comes barging in at odd hours to see if too many people are staying in the room. I tell ya hotel staff is in and out of your room a lot, doing their thing, and you are not supposed to know about it.

I'm trying to get mine and 3-5 other finns who stayed at arts laptops examined by F-Secure this week. Hopefully some evidence will be found.

If it was just maid going in multiple times that would have been dirt easy for the hotel to prove so why on earth they would not do that and clear their name...You sound like you think hotel WANTS bad press for them :lol:

Who knows? We don't know anything.
Maybe there was some other problems.. recent theft by staff, or whatever... near Jeans room and Security thought (or thinks) they might be connected and won't jump to a conclusion.

lol. Nice fantasy dream land you are living in.

Guys if you seriously want to debate PS buying a boat for tournaments, take it to PMs.

This was with Ritz-Carlton? If you still have the fire in the belly, ask them to allow you to speak to the CEO. Like a phone call. Like this week.

Ask him if he's consulted reputation management people. Tell him he has a reputation management problem. Tell him to pull his finger out, or "Ritz Carlton joke security" will be the number one hit on Google.

Jens, just ignore all the stupid comments saying "your fault", "worse things", blah. If they care so little about something like this happening in the poker community, why waste their precious time and post here?

I haven't been part of the poker community for a long time (and I've only played low limits so far) but I'm extremely happy that there are LOTS of really good people around, people who not only share the same passion but also HELP each other when they can! And this is what Jens and his friends are doing here, they're helping everyone in the poker community, spending hours and hours on petty, frustrating, administrative stuff! So those who are on a complete ego-trip should just keep quiet in this thread and devote their time to themselves only.

As for the hotel throwing empty phrases at you, Jens: Maybe you should consider taking a lawyer after all. Annoying as hell to be getting such "answers" from their copy/paste files. So unworthy of a 5* hotel. EPT should clearly never ever use that infested place again! Maybe all EPT players should set up a petition, having it signed by hundreds and hundreds of players?! Can this be done, administratively?

Regarding your personal accounts: Have you changed all your passwords and made them safe, according to my Ilari example or following some of the other suggestions here?

Not trying to bash you at all because it's a horrible situation for you, but if you knew several people who lost huge amounts in the same way and you still took no precautions (unsecured laptop left in the open in your hotel room) then it seems you didn't understand the seriousness either until it happened to you.