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Thread: Fraudster stole up to $10,000 each from poker pros, likely due to a legalized betting payment processor breach. I was one of the victims.

  1. #61
    Diamond BCR's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    Pissed off the wrong Jew here. I expect a Dateline by Thanksgiving. This dude might offer you $20k to go away. If he’s an insider, he’s clearly never read your customer service threads.

    The biggest leak with depositing and withdrawing is that it isn’t necessary to geolocate to perform those actions on any of these books, including MGM. That’s a benefit for someone like me 5 minutes from PA border, but I always found it strange you could conduct the more important business of $ from anywhere. Not surprising you can deposit as any casino will take your cash, but I was surprised I could withdraw when I first started doing it.

    This would have been a lot harder to pull of if they required you to at least bet $100 or something from inside the fenced in area. I’m shocked they didn’t require at least a little action from a geolocated account.
    Last edited by BCR; 11-19-2022 at 06:09 AM.

  2. #62
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    The seizure of funds thing is outrageous, and I'm shocked any jurisdiction allowed this. I love how they frame it as "complying with regulations".

    Bullshit.

    Anyway, it appears Global Payments has designated a media relations person (of which they have several available) to be the point of contact for this matter.

    This woman seems to simply fire out a statement blaming it all on an outsider, and stating that they're working with law enforcement. Typical corporate nonsense meant to deflect from the blame they should face.

    She apparently does not address the real issue with anyone. I sent her an e-mail, as well. We shall see.

    The closing account after 2 years thing is brutal. I try to login to all my NJ accounts once in a while, but I've definitely missed some.
    It's a pain in the ass to get the sites to reopen your account after if you wanna play again. So I recommend logging in once in a while if you made any accounts while visiting NJ.

    I think that is a New Jersey specific regulation. They have some weird rules. I think the funds are supposed to go the states unclaimed property.

    Personally I blame the regulators more than the sites for that one. The sites don't get to keep the funds from closed accounts as profit, so no incentive for them other than not getting fined for not following the regulations.

    This is awesome too btw

  3. #63
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Not sure about other states, but I believe in Nevada the casinos get to keep 25% as a "processing fee".

  4. #64
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Looks like this scandal is finally winding down.

    BetMGM, Viejas, and Global Pay now have a fire under their collective asses, and have kicked their response into high gear.

    They were frantically trying to reach me on early Saturday morning, calling multiple times. When I answered (only because I was having unusual difficulty sleeping, unrelated to their calls), I was told that they "really wanted" to make me whole and make sure I got my $10k BACK. They didn't directly say it, but it seemed fairly clear to me that they really wanted the most visible guy complaining about the scandal to not be able to say anymore that he was out $10k. I'm guessing someone from high above said, "Get that Todd guy his money back so he stops running around the internet telling everyone how we stole $10k from him!"

    They actually offered to wire me the money immediately, because my bank was slow. However, upon checking my account, I noticed the $10k hit on late Friday afternoon, so the point was moot.

    However, I took the opportunity to get them to transfer me to a fairly high up guy in the chain, and I had like a 90 minute conversation with him. I won't reveal at this time everything that was said. I did tell them exactly what I felt Global Payments did wrong, and how outraged I was that this was allowed to happen in the first place. When I then moved on to criticizing BetMGM, the guy said back, "I just want to make it clear, I'm not the one saying that", and I replied, "Oh, I know. I'm the one saying that! And I've been saying it the whole time. The fault lies with both companies here."

    But he did let me know that they have identified a "fraud ring", and have a good idea who was doing it. He did not know (or wouldn't tell me if he did) if these were former employees of the company. He insisted that no current employees were disciplined/fired over this, but admitted that he didn't know whether or not the ring consisted of all outsiders, or if anyone who formerly worked with them was part of it. I'm still guessing it's the latter. He said he didn't know if the ring was US-based.

    He insisted that measures are being taken to prevent a recurrence of this in the future, and described some of them to me. I made further suggestions regarding how I felt they could improve the security even more.

    He said that they are trying to rapidly make everyone whole, and are going to basically eat the losses on this. He claimed that the overall amount of money stolen "wasn't as high as you'd think", but when I told him I assumed over 50 and perhaps 100+ people were hit, he said he didn't know, but it was possible I was right.

    He said that BetMGM, Viejas, and Globalpay are all working together to change things to close these holes. I believe it, actually. The last thing any of them want is further bad publicity over the matter.

    I told him that I was frustrated at how I was mostly dismissed and ignored when I complained about this scam 2 weeks ago. He admitted that the customer service employees "weren't aware of the situation yet" and "didn't handle it as well as they could have". I attempted to warn them at the time, talking to multiple reps, that they had some kind of major vulnerability going on, where fraudsters were outright stealing without actually hacking any accounts. At the time, it fell upon deaf ears.

    Near the end of the call, I told him that it was my opinion that they were only taking this matter seriously because of the recent increasing publicity of the situation. He seemed to almost let it slip that, yes, I was correct. At one point in his response, he conceded that "the fact that this was on ESPN probably got upper management's attention", and that they "probably reacted with more urgency than the dollar amount of fraud would have otherwise justified."

    In other words, it appears they were worried that this was growing into an uncontrollable monster of bad publicity, and made a decision to devote significant resources to solving the problem, getting people paid back, and aggressively addressing the matter.

    Indeed, look at how fast they responded to Galfond, who otherwise wasn't involved in this matter, and simply e-mailed them to preemptively close his account there:

    https://twitter.com/PhilGalfond/status/1593763281340010497




    This was my goal. I knew that mass awareness and publicity was the only way this was going to be handled with any urgency. My voice alone wasn't going to cut it. However, my voice amplified by several written articles (including one on ESPN), plus two appearances on major Youtube shows (Only Friends, Chicago Joey), plus all the tweeting I did, made these companies realize that this was just going to get worse if they didn't address it.

    Hopefully the suspects of this "fraud ring" really are the guilty parties, and they are brought to justice. I have given the contact info of this manager to the police detective I have investigating the case, and hopefully he can get the information he needs to perhaps get some charges pressed on this end, as well. Maybe one day I will find out who was behind this, and if it was anyone we might have heard of.

    In any case, this is looking like it's winding down. I did most of the investigating, I led the publicity effort, but I got plenty of assists by various poker media figures to ratchet up the pressure, and we got action as a result. Once Joseph Cheong went public with the fraud against him, I thought to myself, "My goal for the next week is to turn this story into something too big for them to ignore." Mission accomplished.

     
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  5. #65
    Gold The Boz's Avatar
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    Great job Todd, they picked the wrong guy to fuck with.

    Now can you use any of these contacts anywhere to use against Chrissy? Different situation but people are still getting fucked out of money with Big Techs help, see YouTube and Facebook.

    Could be worth a shot.

     
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  6. #66
    Platinum JeffDime's Avatar
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    Todd has proven over and over again that he is willing to dedicate time & resources to help all kinds of victims of scams. In all honesty he doesn’t get the credit he deserves. The fact Bet MGM was going to wire him the 10K immediately has got to be a first for them. This appearing on ESPN.com I think was the time they decided it finally had to be addressed. A lot the tweets, the appearances on Joey’s & Berkey’s podcasts, etc…were all important to keeping the story’s momentum building to get to that point.

    We haven’t seen something this widespread and targeted to most big name poker players. Typically we see someone outing a scammer who owes them money and “warning” the public, in a “PSA”, to not do business with them. In many cases we see the person walk it back or even contradict their initial statements if the scammer makes an attempt to show they will start paying.

    It’s tough out their gambling for a living. I certainly have been worried about myself this year & most people are worried about their own situation. It’s just great that Todd has the platform & has the time, reach & resources to get things out there. The powers that be can mostly rely on the public’s apathy & self-interest to sweep things under the rug. I don’t blame people for that. But that’s why a guy like Todd is so important.

    I appreciate the candor in posting what Bet MGM did to try and appease Todd. I am not surprised at all being involved as a poster on this site for a few years now. I was certain I wasn’t going to sign on here and see this thread deleted and replaced by an announcement that Todd has signed a lucrative deal as a Bet MGM ambassador (Although I wouldn’t blame him for taking the gig tbh). I would really like a statement of contrition to be released by Bet MGM, but I won’t hold my breath.

    I think it’s important for anyone reading this thread to know there has been an untold thousands of dollars that Todd has either directly saved or played a role in saving a great number of people. Many of them come here to post about being scammed, Todd helps resolve it & we never see them again (unless they get scammed again). If you post on this site information about being scammed it won’t simply just sit on a thread. Todd will vet your allegations and if they seem legit, he will certainly help you. Not many places run like that.

    The ACR mystery withdrawals a few months back being a great example. These people recover a lot of money and Todd helps with fairly little fanfare. Again, it’s understandable for people to not care too much about other people being scammed. But Todd clearly does and has proven it over and over again. He could of simply got his 10 K back from the bank & closed up his Global Payment account. No one could have blamed him. But he 1000X it and is going to make many victims/potential victim’s lives a bunch easier.
    Last edited by JeffDime; 11-20-2022 at 03:40 PM.

  7. #67
    Platinum FRANKRIZZO's Avatar
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    Glad you got your money back. When is next radio?

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    Great job Todd

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    glad you got your money back Druff, hell of a great job

  10. #70
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Now the fraudsters are breaching Draftkings accounts, in a similar scheme, but it involves breaking into existing accounts rather than creating new ones:

    https://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sh...hacking-scheme

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    I guess they're still at it on this scheme, too. They hit Chance Kornuth:

    https://twitter.com/ChancesCards/status/1594474373699993601

  12. #72
    Cubic Zirconia
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    Good job

  13. #73
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Some victimized poker players are now getting collection letters from Global Payments!

    Unbelievable!

    https://twitter.com/Kyna_CooL/status/1597712772187705344


    Kyna privately showed me the letter she received. It's obnoxious, and is demanding she jump through hoops in order to prove she doesn't owe the money. Outrageous!

    Other have received these letters, as well.

    I wrote the following e-mail to a Global Payments manager who has spoken to me in the past:

    D****,

    I just wanted to inform you that a number of victimized poker players have been receiving collections letters from Global Payments after they reported the fraud to their banks.

    Global Payments is claiming that these players authorized these echecks (false), and are demanding police reports and notarized statements in order for Global to wipe off the debt.

    This is unfair to place such a burden upon victims of a well known scheme. One of the victims is named Kyna England. Another is *** *****. They have shown me the letters the have received.

    While I realize you cannot provide me details regarding other players, I am urging Global Payments to stop sending these collections letters and write this fraud off as you told me was the plan. It is not fair to require these players to file police reports or get notarized letters in order to be reimbursed for fraud which largely occurred due to negligence on the part of BetMGM, Viejas, and Global Payments.

    Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

    -Todd Witteles

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    Platinum ftpjesus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    Some victimized poker players are now getting collection letters from Global Payments!

    Unbelievable!

    https://twitter.com/Kyna_CooL/status/1597712772187705344


    Kyna privately showed me the letter she received. It's obnoxious, and is demanding she jump through hoops in order to prove she doesn't owe the money. Outrageous!

    Other have received these letters, as well.

    I wrote the following e-mail to a Global Payments manager who has spoken to me in the past:

    D****,

    I just wanted to inform you that a number of victimized poker players have been receiving collections letters from Global Payments after they reported the fraud to their banks.

    Global Payments is claiming that these players authorized these echecks (false), and are demanding police reports and notarized statements in order for Global to wipe off the debt.

    This is unfair to place such a burden upon victims of a well known scheme. One of the victims is named Kyna England. Another is *** *****. They have shown me the letters the have received.

    While I realize you cannot provide me details regarding other players, I am urging Global Payments to stop sending these collections letters and write this fraud off as you told me was the plan. It is not fair to require these players to file police reports or get notarized letters in order to be reimbursed for fraud which largely occurred due to negligence on the part of BetMGM, Viejas, and Global Payments.

    Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

    -Todd Witteles
    Global needs to tread lightly here. Due to their own gross negligence I believe the poker punters could have a case for a class action lawsuit against Global for their total failures to allow these thefts to begin with let alone adding insult to injury now.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    Some victimized poker players are now getting collection letters from Global Payments!

    Unbelievable!

    https://twitter.com/Kyna_CooL/status/1597712772187705344


    Kyna privately showed me the letter she received. It's obnoxious, and is demanding she jump through hoops in order to prove she doesn't owe the money. Outrageous!

    Other have received these letters, as well.

    I wrote the following e-mail to a Global Payments manager who has spoken to me in the past:

    D****,

    I just wanted to inform you that a number of victimized poker players have been receiving collections letters from Global Payments after they reported the fraud to their banks.

    Global Payments is claiming that these players authorized these echecks (false), and are demanding police reports and notarized statements in order for Global to wipe off the debt.

    This is unfair to place such a burden upon victims of a well known scheme. One of the victims is named Kyna England. Another is *** *****. They have shown me the letters the have received.

    While I realize you cannot provide me details regarding other players, I am urging Global Payments to stop sending these collections letters and write this fraud off as you told me was the plan. It is not fair to require these players to file police reports or get notarized letters in order to be reimbursed for fraud which largely occurred due to negligence on the part of BetMGM, Viejas, and Global Payments.

    Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

    -Todd Witteles
    Not that you need my help, but Legal pro tip: don't be afraid to throw in a reference or two to potential violation(s) of the Federal Debt Collection Practices Act as well as relevant individual state laws in your next message.
    Last edited by JoeD; 11-29-2022 at 05:12 PM.

  16. #76
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Kathy Liebert and several others got those letters, as well.

    On a separate note, I have some info now regarding the perpetrators. I do not have names, but I have more info than I did before, and I believe no other victims have this info yet. For reasons I can't state right now, I can't release this info yet, but I am continuing to look into things.

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    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JoeD View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    Some victimized poker players are now getting collection letters from Global Payments!

    Unbelievable!

    https://twitter.com/Kyna_CooL/status/1597712772187705344


    Kyna privately showed me the letter she received. It's obnoxious, and is demanding she jump through hoops in order to prove she doesn't owe the money. Outrageous!

    Other have received these letters, as well.

    I wrote the following e-mail to a Global Payments manager who has spoken to me in the past:
    Not that you need my help, but Legal pro tip: don't be afraid to throw in a reference or two to potential violation(s) of the Federal Debt Collection Practices Act as well as relevant individual state laws in your next message.
    Actually, I do need your help here.

    Can you tell me which potential violations you see here?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by JoeD View Post

    Not that you need my help, but Legal pro tip: don't be afraid to throw in a reference or two to potential violation(s) of the Federal Debt Collection Practices Act as well as relevant individual state laws in your next message.
    Actually, I do need your help here.

    Can you tell me which potential violations you see here?
    The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) (Federal law applicable in all States) is found at 15 U.S.C. Sections 1692 - 1692p.

    This law outlaws the following collection practices: making a false representation about the character, amount, or legal status of a debt (15 U.S.C. Section 1692(e)(A)(2)), threatening to take action that cannot legally be taken (15 U.S.C. Section 1692(e)(A)(5)), and using a false representation to attempt to collect a debt (15 U.S.C. Section 1692(e)(A)(10)).

    I'd say you may have all of the above given that the purported "debt" for which they are demanding "repayment" resulted from Global's own incompetence, negligence (or possible complicity via inside job?).

    If this were part of a lawsuit, the issue would be whether Global or whomever sent the collection letter qualifies as a "debt collector" under the above law. "A 'debt collector' is defined as any person who regularly collects, or attempts to collect, consumer debts for another person or institution or uses some name other than its own when collecting its own consumer debts. That definition would include, for example, an institution that regularly collects debts for an unrelated institution. This includes reciprocal service arrangements where one institution solicits the help of another in collecting a defaulted debt from a customer who has moved." They would probably also argue that this is not a "consumer" debt.

    However, if you are trying to get Global (and possibly MGM) to drop this current very shitty set of circumstances, I would definitely reference potential violations of the FDCPA in your emails to them/conversations with them since it may help convince them to drop it.

    In addition to federal law, each State has its own consumer protection laws. Just a hunch and without looking into it, I would expect California and New York laws to be a lot more stringent and protective than a State like West Virginia.

     
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  19. #79
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    I can now confirm that the perpetrators were members of an organized fraud ring, based out of San Diego County.

    The fake phone number used on the BetMGM account created in my name was actually that of a burner phone, physically purchased in San Diego County.

    The IP address used for the fake e-mail account was not useful, as the perpetrators were using proxies or VPNs to access it.

    I have more info, but that's all I feel is proper give right now. Stay tuned.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    I can now confirm that the perpetrators were members of an organized fraud ring, based out of San Diego County.

    The fake phone number used on the BetMGM account created in my name was actually that of a burner phone, physically purchased in San Diego County.

    The IP address used for the fake e-mail account was not useful, as the perpetrators were using proxies or VPNs to access it.

    I have more info, but that's all I feel is proper give right now. Stay tuned.
    San Diego has a very large Chaldean population and those guys are the biggest crooks. I would like to bet that the culprits were Chaldean.

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