In our day and age, playing poker online is as safe and secure as it could be – at least most of the time. Online gambling venues use the latest technology to allow players to place real money bets without worry, but sometimes, criminals still find a way around those security systems.
A few weeks back, the poker community was shocked to hear about an online poker fraud case that surfaced lately. What exactly happened? And how can you keep your online poker account safe and secure? Find out more about this pressing issue RIGHT NOW!
New Online Poker Scandal Revealed
Over the course of a few weeks, multiple poker players have reported that money disappeared from their bank accounts. According to their claims, fraudsters managed to create online gambling accounts under their names, stealing thousands of dollars in the process.
Todd Witteles, one of the victims of this elaborate scam, explained what transpired in an interview. According to Witteles, someone opened an account on a legalized online gambling platform under his name, depositing almost $10k to said account. Shortly after, the money was withdrawn to a bogus Venmo Debit Mastercard account, also using the victim's name.
Other players like Joseph Cheong, Brock Wilson, and Kyna England were also victims of the same scammers.
Now, the most important question is: how do scammers operate? In a lengthy post, Witteles explained that it all comes down to the payment processor most online casinos use.
Apparently, Global Payments Gaming Solutions offers VIP services to online venues, allowing frequent gamblers to store multiple checking accounts in one place to make the deposit process easier. That means that once you've created an account at an online venue using Global Payments, some of your information is stored in a database for future use.
This service is meant to help regular gamblers and high rollers to sign up for multiple online casinos with minimal hassle. But in this case, what was supposed to be a perk became a real nuisance.
It has been speculated that the scammers in question found a way to access that information, and used it to their advantage. Since players who already have a Global Payment account don't have to verify their identity when signing up on other websites, the scammers used existing accounts to steal money undetected.
Global Payments released a statement claiming they were conducting an investigation, confirming that their own servers haven't been compromised. At this moment in time, they believe the information was stolen from a third-party site, but we are still waiting on more details.
How to Keep Your Online Poker Account Safe
Even though online casinos are mostly a safe place for you to place real-money bets, there are still some precautions you can take to keep your personal information as secure as possible.
- Choose a trust-worthy gambling venue – Only create an account at a respected online poker venue - OURS. According to experts, you can detect a secure website if it has a padlock symbol on the address bar, a valid certification, and "https" before the URL itself.
- Use strong passwords – Predictable and short passwords are easy to crack, so don't use your name, date of birth, and common number combinations as your password. Instead, think of a long and seemingly random password that includes lowercase and capital letters, numbers, and symbols.
- Don't share your password with anyone – Keeping your private information a secret is crucial. Don't share your password with anyone. And if you write it down – make sure no one has access to it.
- Use an e-wallet when possible – Depositing money through a third-party service provider adds another layer of security to your account. Even if someone gains access to your poker account, it won't be directly linked to your banking info.
Place Bets and Be Safe!
To have a splendid online poker experience, where you can let go and forget about any issues you might have, you must find the perfect venue - again....OURS! Make sure that you can place your bets in a secure environment, take some extra precautions, and you can let the adventure begin!