Newest Lock Poker scam: Big withdrawals canceled, support unresponsive

[Dan Druff]

There is a "new rep" on 2+2, but he hasn't been verified yet. He posts as "lockpokerofficial".

He registered from Portugal (LOL) and posted from Germany. He has just one post and has not responded to the now-7-page thread.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/19...-team-1328546/

My name is Joseph and I have worked with Lock for several years. I work in the security and fraud side of things. Over the past few months it has become very clear that another voice is needed to support Shane as well as providing all of you with official statements from Lock. We wanted to address some of the issues that have been brought up recently as there seems to be a real mix of false statements, half-truths and legitimate player concerns.

One of the steps recently taken has been to crack down on accounts abusing the player transfers to bulk withdraw funds with absolutely no play on the accounts. Our security team is reviewing every case in detail to ensure that withdrawals of winnings by players are not affected. Lock has always had the policy in place to restrict withdrawals on transferred funds but this is now being enforced much more aggressively due to some severe player abuse.

There has also been some mis-information regarding Lock losing funds in Cypress accounts. This is completely fabricated and false. Lock has never held any accounts in Cypress banks.

Lock is dedicated to reducing cash-out times. We understand the importance of quick withdrawals and are focused on improving the experience of cashing out of your account.

Based on some of the recent findings and implementation of policies you will see things greatly improve over the next 3 weeks.

Joseph

The first LOL thing about this is the fact that this guy is repeating the exact same bullshit that Shane has recently written. So why even bother switching reps?

This was so ridiculous that I thought it had to be a gimmick account...

... until it was revealed that the account registered from Portugal and posted from Germany.

Guess where Shane is?

http://de.linkedin.com/in/shanegrahambridges
'
"Berlin area", Germany.

Initial research shows that no other Lock employees appear to be in Germany. This is not certain, as I don't have a complete list of Lock employees, but there are no employees at Lock to my knowledge in Germany but Shane.

Furthermore, someone on 2+2 found some spelling/grammatical similarities between "Joseph" and Shane:

Lock has never held any accounts in Cypress banks.

Lock has never banked in Cyprus and the collapse in Cypress was 2013 not 2012.

This is completely fabricated and false.

When I discovered that the story posted here that everyone was supporting was completely fabricated and pretty much the exact opposite of what really happened I thought it was important to share that information here.

I work in the security and fraud side of things.

And I of course brought up segregation and passed on everyones comments from here and she said from our side of things we are seeing great numbers on our KPIs.

So let's add this up:

Shane from Germany was the 2+2 rep for Lock Poker. Joseph from Germany is the new 2+2 rep for Lock Poker.

Shane misspells "Cyprus" as "Cypress", and uses somewhat unusual phrases such as "side of things" and "completely fabricated". Joseph misspells "Cyprus" as "Cypress", and uses somewhat unusual phrases such as "side of things" and "completely fabricated".

Shane is the only known Lock employee from Germany. Joseph is from Germany.

Joseph is providing the identical information about Lock that Shane did prior to "leaving".

You be the judge.

[BeerAndPoker]

FTPDoug?

I see SixToedPete had to come in that thread to troll

[chinamaniac]

There is a "new rep" on 2+2, but he hasn't been verified yet. He posts as "lockpokerofficial".

He registered from Portugal (LOL) and posted from Germany. He has just one post and has not responded to the now-7-page thread.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/19...-team-1328546/



The first LOL thing about this is the fact that this guy is repeating the exact same bullshit that Shane has recently written. So why even bother switching reps?

This was so ridiculous that I thought it had to be a gimmick account...

... until it was revealed that the account registered from Portugal and posted from Germany.

Guess where Shane is?

http://de.linkedin.com/in/shanegrahambridges
'
"Berlin area", Germany.

Initial research shows that no other Lock employees appear to be in Germany. This is not certain, as I don't have a complete list of Lock employees, but there are no employees at Lock to my knowledge in Germany but Shane.

Furthermore, someone on 2+2 found some spelling/grammatical similarities between "Joseph" and Shane:

Lock has never held any accounts in Cypress banks.

Lock has never banked in Cyprus and the collapse in Cypress was 2013 not 2012.

This is completely fabricated and false.

When I discovered that the story posted here that everyone was supporting was completely fabricated and pretty much the exact opposite of what really happened I thought it was important to share that information here.

I work in the security and fraud side of things.

And I of course brought up segregation and passed on everyones comments from here and she said from our side of things we are seeing great numbers on our KPIs.

So let's add this up:

Shane from Germany was the 2+2 rep for Lock Poker. Joseph from Germany is the new 2+2 rep for Lock Poker.

Shane misspells "Cyprus" as "Cypress", and uses somewhat unusual phrases such as "side of things" and "completely fabricated". Joseph misspells "Cyprus" as "Cypress", and uses somewhat unusual phrases such as "side of things" and "completely fabricated".

Shane is the only known Lock employee from Germany. Joseph is from Germany.

Joseph is providing the identical information about Lock that Shane did prior to "leaving".

You be the judge.

[Corrigan]

[Ryland]

Btw, on a serious note great job yesterday Druff (And hopefully today) leading the fight against lock in that thread. It's so awesome FINALLY an anti lock thread has blown up hella huge. Really feel for people who have money trapped on there currently.

[Dan Druff]

Lock Poker Shadiness 101

Recently 2+2 posters have been treated to "explanations" from several Lock Pros, all of whom have displayed a shocking degree of ignorance regarding both the recent and long-term shadiness of their company. We keep hearing that they trust CEO Jennifer Larson and that they believe everything will end up okay. We keep hearing excuses as to why the current cashout fiasco is occurring, and why it should get better very soon. We keep hearing that we are being over-speculative by stating that Lock is likely broke.

Understandably, this gets all of Lock's victims (and interested observers) very angry, as they know otherwise. It is highly frustrating to be not only cheated by a shady company, but to get nonsensical and uninformed answers back from its employees.

Therefore, I have written this handy guide where all Lock Pros (and any other Lock apologists) can refer when they are trying to understand this situation.

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


The 2013 Cashout Cancellations

What Happened: A large number of people found their Lock cashouts canceled, many of which occurred months after being approved and supposedly in processing. Almost all of these cancellations came with an excuse from Lock that the cancellations were related to chip transfers they received at some point.

Lock's Answer: Lock first claimed that these players received transfers and immediately tried to cash them out without playing. It was said at one point by 2+2 Lock rep Shane that all transfers require a 1:1 playthrough. When these players insisted (apparently truthfully) that they easily met playthrough requirements, a new story was peddled that there is some sort of nefarious cashout ring, where certain people are buying up Lock funds on the cheap (through Twoplustwo's trading thread) and then using "priority" affiliate accounts to cash them out. Supposedly affiliate accounts have priority to cash out much more quickly than regular players (which is wrong and unfair itself.) Lock claims that some affiliates were abusing this priority, and that the canceled cashouts were a result of being connected to these accounts abusing the system.

Why Lock's Answer is BS: Most of the players with canceled cashouts are longtime grinders, and almost none of them have these affiliate accounts. Many of the players have never received a Lock transfer. Lock has provided zero evidence of this supposed affiliate cashout scheme ever occurring. It has been more than two weeks, and Lock has done nothing to correct these bogus cashout cancellations, even though it would take about 5 minutes to verify for each account that they were not involved with anything shady. In addition, it would be very easy for Lock to prevent this supposed "affiliate cashout scheme" by either making everyone's cashout the same priority or just scrutinizing cashouts by affiliates and leaving everyone else alone. I could literally teach a 9-year-old to look at an account's history and easily be able to tell which were "abusing" transfers and which were legitimate players. The fact that this still hasn't been rectified after more than two weeks is evidence that this is a cashout stalling tactic by Lock, rather than any attempt to stop supposed abuse of their system.



Lock's Super-Slow Non-US Cashouts

What Happened: While it is acknowledged that US cashouts are very slow due to interference by the US Department of Justice, non-US (also known as RoW) cashouts are not affected by this. This is because financial transactions between Lock and non-US players are not illegal. Therefore, all other large and medium-sized networks are cashing out non-US players quickly. Lock's non-US cashouts are taking more than 4 months. This makes no sense, as the large delay in US cashouts is due to their illegality. Since there is no illegality involved in non-US cashouts, they should complete within hours or days, NOT months.

Lock's Answer: The affiliate cashout scheme referenced above caused a large number of cashouts to be processed through Skrill (the most common cashout method for non-US players), and this maxed out Lock's Skrill cashout limits, thus creating a large cashout backlog. Lock claims they have since put a stop to this affiliate cashout scheme, thus causing the backlog to clear up, and Skrill cashouts should be back to normal by June.

Why Locks' Answer is BS: In addition to the fact that Lock has provided no evidence that this affiliate cashout scheme really occurred, all cashout methods have been slow, not just ones through Skrill. Lock cannot explain why they can't send quick Western Union payments or quick checks to non-US players. They have also provided no evidence that they have actually reached Skrill's cashout limit. We are just supposed to believe this excuse. Even if the Skrill excuse is true, it does not explain why ALL non-US cashouts are ridiculously slow, and why none have been processed in the past month. The likely answer is that Lock is broke, and that all of their stories are fabricated.



Lock's Lack of Solvency

What Happened: Lock's recent actions (segregating players from the rest of the network, slow payouts, cashout cancellations, non-payment of skins) strongly suggest that they are broke, and that they stole all of the player money. Many have demanded proof that Lock is not broke, by way of an audit from an accredited, respected third-party accounting firm. Lock is refusing to do this.

Lock's Answer: Lock says that their status as a US-facing room puts their bank accounts at risk, and that the location of their money must be a well-kept secret in order to prevent seizures by the US Department of Justice. Therefore, an audit cannot be done, as the auditing firm could somehow leak the location of their bank accounts, and the US will seize them all, thus causing the loss of all player money.

Why Lock's Answer is BS: There are a few major problems with Lock's excuse. First off, respectable auditing firms take confidentiality extremely seriously. If such a leak occurred, it would destroy the well-cultivated reputation of these auditing firms, so such a leak would never happen. Second, the US DOJ has always held the position that they are not interested in seizing player money. In every case of seizure of poker site money (dating all the way back to the 2007 Neteller seizures), the US DOJ has refunded it to players (or allowed the company to do so) after learning that it was player money. Thus, Lock is not protecting the players from anything. Finally, even if there was a tiny chance that a leak could occur and the DOJ would seize the money, that risk pales in comparison to the risk Lock is taking to their business by allowing widespread speculation (and belief) that they are broke. Therefore, if this audit could assuage everyone's fears about Lock and bring the site back to respectability, Lock would do it in a second, even if it did carry a little risk (which it does not). In reality, Lock refuses to do this because they are broke, and an audit would prove that.



The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow

Lock's Statement: Jennifer Larson told Lock Pros that everything with the cashouts would return to normal by June -- about 4 weeks from now. The pros want us to wait and see if this happens before we complain further. If cashouts do improve by June, that should be enough to know that Lock is indeed on solid footing.

Why Lock's Statement is BS: Recall that Full Tilt was doing a great job processing non-US cashouts after Black Friday, despite having only about 2% of all player money on hand. Simply put, Full Tilt had stolen 98% of player funds, and was still able to operate normally and cash out people in reasonable amounts of time. Therefore, simply processing cashouts by industry standard is NOT proof of solvency. All of Lock's actions indicate they are broke. They need to prove they actually have player money. Simply returning cashouts to "normal" (after two months of not cashing anyone out) is not acceptable, nor is it indicative that Lock is healthy. It is more likely that Lock is stalling for 2 months while they collect a little money (through deposits), and will use those deposits to pay cashouts in June -- a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. This is unacceptable, and without an audit, it seems likely that Lock is broke.



International Lock's European Vacation

What Happened: Lock CEO Jennifer Larson held an expensive retreat in Portual for Lock Pros in late April-early May of 2013, despite the site's massive cashout problems and likely insolvency. She rented a castle, hired an expensive UK dance act for entertainment, and engaged in all sorts of other lavish expenditures for her employees. In the meantime, many players' cashouts have been arbitrarily canceled, and nobody has received a completed cashout since April 9th.

Lock's Explanation: A large number of Lock pros were at this retreat, and all of them were under strict orders not to talk or tweet about it. Of course, given the vast number of people attending this highbrow retreat, word slipped out, and I posted about it in the Lock forum. Shane denied it and told me that I needed to get "better sources" for information, but subsequent tweets and Facebook messages proved that indeed this really occurred. None of the Lock Pros posting on 2+2 are willing to talk about this, and keep ignoring all questions about Portugal. This is despite the fact that all of these pros claim to "care" about the plight of the Lock players and the money they have stuck on the site.



Girah and Lock's Cheating Complicity

What Happened: Girah, a supposed young Portuguese poker prodigy, became a Lock Pro. In April, 2011, Lock held a contest to where the player who won the most on the site would get a great prize prackage, including a WSOP Main Event seat. A dedicated grinder, who was unaffiliated with Lock, was leading the contest going into April 30. Girah, despite a lot of grinding of his own, was WAY behind in the contest, to where he'd have to win a nearly-impossible 100k in the final day to overtake the leader. As a 5-10 NL grinder with no experience at upper limits, there was no way Girah could win the contest. However, suddenly a previously unseen player showed up on Lock with $100k, played Girah heads up, and Girah crushed him for his entire bankroll. Thanks to this last-minute bit of obvious chip-dumping, Girah "won" the contest. Lock awarded Girah the prize and did not question the EXTREMELY suspicious nature of his last-minute win, including the fact that a 5-10 grinder suddenly played an otherwise unknown opponent at super-high stakes and won 100k, just enough to rocket to the top of the leaderboard. After the subsequent outrage regarding Girah's cheating, Lock changed course and disqualified him. However, they would not explain how he was awarded the prize in the first place given the obvious cheating, and Lock eventually refused to talk about it, claiming they had a pending lawsuit against Girah. You can read about this situation in more detail here: http://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sho...ull=1#post1347

Lock's Explanation: Girah actually legitimately won the contest, and there was no chip dumping. However, since he had shared his account briefly at one point in the contest, he was disqualified on a technicality. Here is Jennifer Larson's statement about it:

We pride ourselves in standing for trust, legitimacy and loyalty. The truth is sometimes hard to stand by but it is the only way we can move forward. Although José won enough money from his own IP to have legitimately won the challenge, the unfortunate fact remains that breaking the rules is strictly disallowed. It nevertheless remains José is an exceptional player and I firmly believe that his mistakes only lead to greatness if he learns from them and himself moves forward.

--Jennifer Larson, Lock Poker CEO

Lock later refused to talk about this, citing a pending lawsuit against Girah.

Why Lock's Explanation is BS: Girah's partner-in-crime -- the chip-dumper himself (DogIsHead, aka Haseem Qureshi) later admitted that this was exactly as it appeared -- a blatant chip-dump in order to cheat in the contest. This means that Jennifer completely lied in her press release where she claimed "José won enough money from his own IP to have legitimately won the challenge" -- or at least she was being intentionally misleading. Yes, Girah "won" the money from his own IP, but he "won" it all through chip dumping! Therefore, her implication that he was disqualified on a technicality (despite legitimately winning) was COMPLETELY FALSE. Nobody was ever willing to explain how such a blatant and obvious attempt at cheating a contest was ignored by everyone at Lock, and Girah was declared the winner. When pressured on this matter, Lock reps insisted that there was a lawsuit against Girah, and therefore they could not comment. Two years later, nobody can find any evidence of such a lawsuit, nor will Lock present any. This has been completely swept under the rug.

What Really Happened: Girah and DogIsHead conspired to chip dump to win the contest. This was a last-minute decision, so the entire dump had to be done on the last day, which of course was stupid and raised huge red flags. Lock would benefit from Girah being crowned the winner of the contest (since he was their pro, and the winner was to get a big profile in BLUFF Magazine), and it was much better for business for their highly-touted poker prodigy to be profiled in BLUFF rather than just some no-name grinder. Therefore, Jennifer attempted to look the other way despite knowing the truth about the cheating, until public pressure forced her to change course. Even then, she lied about what really happened, hoping people would no longer question how Lock could have "missed" this ridiculously obvious cheating attempt.


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

I could go on and on here with so many other Lock scandals and examples of shady behavior, but I'll stop here.

Please refer all uninformed and naive Lock Pros to this post if they show up spouting company-line idiocies.

[Hockey Guy]

I see that new Lock representative Joseph is working out well.

I'm sure this will all be cleared up in no time.

BTW Bubbles, how much $ do you still have tied up on Lock?

[BUBBLES]

I sold all my Lock money a few months ago.

I still get pm's from people wanting to buy Lock though.

[BeerAndPoker]

Now I see gank coming in to defend Lock. Really????

[Dan Druff]

Here is gank's message and my response to him:

================================================== ====

Hi all, my name is Brett Jungblut, and I am a Lock pro.

First off, I would like to say that I have been a member of the online poker community for a long time, I have built a reputation of being honest and fair, and feel I have earned the respect of my colleagues. These things are much more important to me then any amount of money or my wsop win.

With that being said, I will always be a player first, and protecting the game will always be my top priority.

Just like everyone else, I also have been negatively effected by the speeds of cash outs, been frustrated with emailing support and feel like communication is lacking.

We know these things need to drastically improve, and will have our full attention until resolved.

I just want to let the community know, and this is coming from someone who has been with Lock for over 3 years, I truly believe that the slow cash outs are not being caused by some of the theories that have surfaced, and are being misinterpreted and extrapolated unfairly and in a way that is not positive for anyone. I believe all is well, and the shortcomings that we have at Lock (cashout speeds, effectively communicating expectations,etc) are being addressed and will see a constant improvement.

I have full faith in Lock and have no problem giving back my 2013 Salary to a player pool, as had been suggested, if something were to happen, though I am confident it wont.

All I would ask is to let's all remain positive and give Lock some time to readdress these issues and start to regain the trust of the community.

Brett, this is Dan Druff.

I've known you for several years now. You and I have never been what I'd call friends, but we have always gotten along and I really respected how you stood side-by-side with me and other AP/UB victims and loudly called them out.

When AP/UB tried to peddle their nonsensical excuses for the cheating and lack of transparency, you were among the first to publicly lambast them and take them to task for their obvious lies.

You are also clearly no corporate yes-man. I saw your dedicated activism to the Occupy Las Vegas cause. While I don't agree with a lot of your politics, I respected the core reason behind your Occupy activism -- to fight corporate corruption at the grass-roots.

So what happened?

You are now representing the shadiest online poker company in business today.

I would like you to read these two links, where I summarize current and past lies/scams/scandals at Lock Poker:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/19...101-a-1328988/

http://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sho...ull=1#post1349

It will take you about 10-15 minutes to read all of the above.

Please tell me after reading these reports how anyone can possibly be patient with Lock at this point, given their 4-year history of lying, scheming, and scamming.

I am aware that Jennifer Larson has treated you well. She's treated all of the Lock Pros well, because you are the faces leading innocent lambs to the slaughter.

To put it in Occupy lingo, I'm sure the banks and other corporations you were protesting against treated their VPs very well.

Seriously, Brett, I know you're not a bad guy and have strong moral fiber. What happened to you here? How have you been brainwashed like this?

Do you really think this is very different from AP/UB? How come you were so easily able to see through the AP/UB lies but continue to represent a company like Lock, given all the evidence against them? Is it because you are receiving a paycheck from Lock, while AP/UB was not paying you? Please say it isn't so.

[pavoe]

Thought about putting your name under location on 2+2? Many dont seem to know that it is you posting as kilo, Vanessas post was kind of amusing.

Also any chance to get one of the other smart and vocal guys with you on the show? Not sure if you have any kind of contact to them...Vanessa, Raidalot and the likes. Could be a great segment and good for radio in many ways.

And keep crushing them! GREAT WORK!!!!

[vookenmeister]

Mr. Druff,

First, thanks for all your continued insight and hard work in everything. It is much appreciated...

Ass kissing aside...

Assume some third party shuts Lock down. What impact could this have on the rest of Revolution? Is there jurisdiction to seize play on the entire network? How about financials on other skins (separate cashiers)? In other words, volume aside, what kind of impact could this have on other Revolution operations?

Edit: I ask this knowing that Intertops has been around "forever" with Sportbook operations and solid financials.

[Erin Micunt]

Wow, just Wow.....

With the IP tracking information already in hand the Machine ID should further support Joseph's separate identity. My location certainly isn't a secret and its definitely not Germany.

I was careful not to lie, your information was factually incorrect. I didnt deny any Lock team members were in Portugal, I was under a media blackout and unable to confirm it and merely pointed out that your information wasn't factual.

Is this guy for real?

[Hockey Guy]

Wow, just Wow.....

With the IP tracking information already in hand the Machine ID should further support Joseph's separate identity. My location certainly isn't a secret and its definitely not Germany.

I was careful not to lie, your information was factually incorrect. I didnt deny any Lock team members were in Portugal, I was under a media blackout and unable to confirm it and merely pointed out that your information wasn't factual.

Is this guy for real?

So is this the arguement he's electing to use? Really?

[chinamaniac]

Mr. Druff,

First, thanks for all your continued insight and hard work in everything. It is much appreciated...

Ass kissing aside...

Assume some third party shuts Lock down. What impact could this have on the rest of Revolution? Is there jurisdiction to seize play on the entire network? How about financials on other skins (separate cashiers)? In other words, volume aside, what kind of impact could this have on other Revolution operations?

Edit: I ask this knowing that Intertops has been around "forever" with Sportbook operations and solid financials.

IMO it depends on how much of the network lock owns.

Other skins may be forced to shutdown and find new homes but I was under the impression most have their own cashiers.

I was told the amount of monthly reconciliation lock has to pay Intertops would be insignificant if such a thing happened and Intertops has all player money segregated.

As far as other little skins I have no clue

[BCR]

Wow, just Wow.....

With the IP tracking information already in hand the Machine ID should further support Joseph's separate identity. My location certainly isn't a secret and its definitely not Germany.

I was careful not to lie, your information was factually incorrect. I didnt deny any Lock team members were in Portugal, I was under a media blackout and unable to confirm it and merely pointed out that your information wasn't factual.

Is this guy for real?

Of all the absurd answers this guy has dished out, this one is impossible to recover from. I don't expect to see much more out of him after that answer. You just can't be taken seriously after that response. Not responding at all would have been so much better.

[Dan Druff]

Mr. Druff,

First, thanks for all your continued insight and hard work in everything. It is much appreciated...

Ass kissing aside...

Assume some third party shuts Lock down. What impact could this have on the rest of Revolution? Is there jurisdiction to seize play on the entire network? How about financials on other skins (separate cashiers)? In other words, volume aside, what kind of impact could this have on other Revolution operations?

Edit: I ask this knowing that Intertops has been around "forever" with Sportbook operations and solid financials.

Since it appears that each skin holds its own money (I'm not sure of this, but it appears this way), it probably would have the following impact:

1) Some small skins would just shut down and vanish, and blame it on Lock

2) Some small skins would change networks

3) Some small skins would pay out and then shut down (though I think this would be the exception, not the rule)

4) The larger skins like Intertops would survive, and just switch network

But you raise a good point. It's probably smarter to be playing on a larger skin (except Lock) if you're going to play Revolution at all.

Oh, and stay away from Cake, too. I'm hearing all kinds of bad things about them, as well.

[Dan Druff]

Of all the absurd answers this guy has dished out, this one is impossible to recover from. I don't expect to see much more out of him after that answer. You just can't be taken seriously after that response. Not responding at all would have been so much better.

It was so easy to set Shane up to pretty much self-destruct on 2+2.

The guy was lying so routinely that all I had to do was ask him a question where it would be easy to disprove his lie, and he took the bait. Then he took the bait again when he returned after his hiatus.

The incompetence at Lock is only exceeded by its shadiness.

[Erin Micunt]

At least one lock pro has some integrity.

Chris Moorman @Moorman1

1/2 I have decided not to renew my contract with Lock. I sincerely hope Lock is able to overcome its current problems and...
1:09 PM - 7 May 2013

[BeerAndPoker]

At least one lock pro has some integrity.

Chris Moorman @Moorman1

1/2 I have decided not to renew my contract with Lock. I sincerely hope Lock is able to overcome its current problems and...
1:09 PM - 7 May 2013

That's great Chris Moorman left but people are making him out to be a hero on 2+2 when he's not that but definitely several steps ahead of the others by leaving.