I sure get a lot of hero calls around here..

My 'question' was in reference to the suggestion that Win boot passw0rds can be bypassed.

But a hacker cannot boot from a stick unless it's been moved to the top of the bios boot selections. This must be a deliberate act by an experienced user, and serves a particular purpose. People like poker players have no reason to do it.

Scary to see the lengths some scum will go to to get money. Be safe people.

Thanks for that. If you know who this person is that had his stuff temporarily 'borrowed', you might ask him (her?) to report it now to the police as they are involved in this thread's incident's investigation and this ties into it. It sounds as though someone (or plural) at the hotel knew the tourney was coming up and came up with the idea of doing this to players. It doesn't sound like the work of a genius set of professional scammers but rather something a dishonest but not yet professional type would come up with.

For players who play at such high stakes and travel, it now makes sense, to me at least, to have two dedicated online poker laptops--a primary home one and a 'traveling poker' laptop that gets reformatted after every trip (and is kept in sight at all times while on trip). Maybe that's overkill, but when you're dealing with tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, it would be worth it.

Good luck to everyone at the EPT and especially to those who are dealing with this mess.

The fact that the laptop was physically removed and later returned should ring a major alarm bell. As others have pointed out, installing a simple virus, keylogger or what not can be done in seconds, and this would not warrant physical removal and return of the laptop with all risks involved. Therefore, it is not at all imaginary that the laptop has been physically modified in order to scam its owner out of a few hundred grand. If that's the case, reinstalling or antivirus software will make you feel safe, while in fact you are not. As a matter of fact, if done right it is nearly impossible to detect.

If a buyin at the stakes you are playing is more than the cost of your laptop (which I'm pretty sure is the case), I would strongly recommend to cease using it immediately and get a brand new one. Sue the hotel for the costs if you must.

My two cents,
--
Rien

As someone who works at a Hotel, I would say that the most likely scenario is that it was a hotel employee. A lot of staff have master keys that will access the room at any time regardless of whether the guests keys are functional or not. However, any random person could hace easily gone to the FD and got new keys for your room. If they claimed they left their ID behind they may just issue you keys as long as you know the room number and last name. The new set of keys may have demagnetized the old ones, and when you came down for a new set they may have simply made a duplicate which would have allowed whoever got keys for your room to go back in even after you got new keys.

Also I saw someone ask if keys stop working if a door is broken into. At the property I work at if a door is forcefully opened or manually opened new keys have to be issued. Obviously this is not the case if a master key is used.

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cant rule out this possibility

the fact the person breaking into these rooms and stealing the laptops isn't bothered about potential passwords on the machines must ring some bells too, i guess all he needs is the laptop powered up to do w/e it is he's doing.

it would be crazy to think that there isn't any CCTV of the person breaking into the rooms, i guess the police will be looking into that

I'll repeat my earlier answer. No, the USB stick doesn't need to be on top of the boot list. Just pressing the key to bring up the boot device selection menu during boot is enough.

- mongeron

I dont have much to say in regards to the keys since I dont know, but in regards to Notebooksecurity.
AV can be enough but most likely wont be if its planned, which most likely it is,so I wouldnt rely on that.Passwords in Windows etc. arent enough either because you can just turn it off,boot with a CD and access all your files.
The safest thing is a Bios Password, it gives you at least some time..its not like someone can come in and **** your Notebook in 2 or 3mins.
Nontheless even here you have to beware since they theoretically can just take your HDD out and put it into another machine.Question is tho if they are willing to make the effort and have one with em+screwdriver.
--->encyrpt your HDD+Bios Password is a really really strong Protection, it depends tho how far you wanna go/can go,but that is a good one, there are not many People who can overcome that and it takes time, so if you play for alot of Money/travel alot,I definately would advice to get this done.

In the meantime if you might be a victim, dont use it anymore,at least no Emaillogin/Internetpoker/Banking obv. and if your not sophisticated/dont know somebody better get a new one,otherwise just format HDD, definately enough if you do it right.

DN is doing ok... up to 227K from 50K to start the day.
Avg 160K

ban da wrong man. Why you talk like this?


Try separate your teeth when talking fella.

Apologies though if you're in fact Eminem.


Edit- I knew you was London. Init

make sure to disconnect from the internet before you try any antivirus software coz good hackers can modify their trojans live based on what you are doing and stay undetected. formating its obv the way to go though

Surely there is no need for insiders if the gang simply hacks the hotel's system:

- check guest list for rooms of known poker players
- create room keys to gain access/de-activate keys to deny genuine guest entry
- even use hotel's own CCTV coverage to check the coast is clear to enter the rooms

You might be able to find out which employees of the hotel are behind this but I doubt you would find out the guys at the top who planned this.

You could of worked with Stars/Police kept this quiet for awhile & carefully watched the infected accounts to see which player/accts sits with them and strangely wins alot of money then trail through the HHs to find out this is the hackers acct who can see the whole cards and then trace the IP/players details, freeze the Hackers acct ship back the funds and then you have a suspect to work with.

Hmm Pokerstars and Police don't really belong in the same sentence.

The only reason the Police are involved with this case, is because somebody illegally gained access to a hotel room and the hotel has an obligation to contact them.

If they manage to get away with a few hundred thousand, then I very much doubt Stars would even attempt to get the police involved.

And this is the very reason why these criminals target online poker players.

Doesn't seen like they've caught the person/people responsible for this yet. But I hope when they do they out them publicly.

I was staying at the Icaria (10 minute walk from the Arts) and also had the same issue with room keys. Similarly, I was able to get a new one by just giving my name and room number. Could obviously be a coincidence, but if any of you guys are staying there, it would probably pay to be extra cautious.

Now that the OP has started another thread where he tells the full story, I'm going to lock this thread.

You can read the full story and continue discussing the issue in the new thread.