[calm]

Moderator note 8/4/12: BetOnline has credited the player's account back his $60,000.
======================================== ============================

I just filed a complaint...

My account at BetOnline was hacked, I believe sometime in early May. Over the next few weeks there were numerous unauthorized transactions on my account, mostly transfers to the poker room and casino play. All together nearly $60,000 was stolen from my account. I hadn't been betting on the account lately since I was trying to withdraw most of my balance, which is why it took me a few weeks to notice the hacking.

I personally never played any poker or casino games on my BetOnline account (my account has been active since 2008), only sports bets, so I think it should be easy to prove that the account was hacked, especially from looking at the nature of the poker transfers and hand histories, or the IP addresses from which the account was accessed. However I have repeatedly asked their customer service for such information and they have not been cooperative at all. They claim the investigation is still ongoing, but since it has been well over a month now I am losing faith in their competence and integrity. I would greatly appreciate any help you can provide on this case, and please let me know if you need any additional information or clarification on my end.

[SBR Lou]

Thank you for writing, calm.

SBR will follow up on your complaint.

[prop]

Yuck! Seriously not sure why sportsbooks don't offer log-in hardware the same as large poker sites and e-wallets do. Anyways calm, super sorry to hear - this makes me feel sick reading and is certainly far worse to experience.

[betplom]

$60k stolen from my BetOnline account

You'll get it back, BOL takes months to pay - which means the thief will have to file a slow pay complaint before getting any of your dough.

We like your chances.

[5mike5]

not the 1st time we have heard this story about BOL

GL

[tuckman]

Typical BO bullshit just to tie up your money for awhile. Shit book

[princecharles]

I really hope the rumors of a 'hacking team' out of South Africa' turn out to be innocuous.

Before he was banned that poster FiredFromBol made a lot of claims that I never saw debunked in the slightest.

I feel so damn awful for people caught up in crap like this.

[5mike5]

Typical BO bullshit just to tie up your money for awhile. Shit book

[TRE1968]

who would have 60 k in an offshore acct

[betplom]

who would have 60 k in an offshore acct

Exactly.

[tuckman]

As a player you are better off getting slow paid 3+ months by sports betting.ag over the lies, shady shit they pull, funds mysteriously missing from accounts that BO pulls constantly.

[probettor1]

60k? wow, great bettor and big balls. I wish I could say the same about myself. Wish you luck getting your money back.

[BigDaddy]

As a player you are better off getting slow paid 3+ months by sports betting.ag over the lies, shady shit they pull, funds mysteriously missing from accounts that BO pulls constantly.

that's not what Bill says

http://www.sportsbookreview.com/forum/sportsbook...ine-ag-p2.html

"I haven't read the posts from the disgruntled employee. BetOnline has been around for quite a few years now and never failed to pay a player. Literally a perfect record. Some players who got screwed by D- Sportsbetting or have been waiting for a big payout are very fortunate. Sure it's annoying not to have access to your $50 pending wager or payout which Sportsbetting was servicing just fine but in the big picture, it's good for players. Sportsbetting had one of those domains that got them players who weren't familiar with what other sportsbooks had to offer. Little marketing was needed. Most will be very pleased."

[brendon]

who would have 60 k in an offshore acct

many people. to us, it's a lot. but, he could be a millionaire or someone who bets 2-3k a game and got on a really hot streak. this situation has been over a month and he seems extremely calm. obviously, he can handle the risk and tolerate his stress level at a balance like that. he is not like the other guy who had all his life's worth in wsex.

[marcojuiceman]

I aleast make one withdrawal a month no need in tying my money into a overseas book Who could be closed down with no FDIC backing

[lines freak]

I hope you get it back, but leaving 60 k and not watching it every day is really risky.

If I had 60 k in an account, i'd be logging in every hour, just cause it looks so pretty lol

Yeah, I get nervous leaving money in over a weekend let alone months.

Unless you betting 5 k a game, theres no real point in leaving that much in.

But if u do make sure it's one of the top books. And if u change books, please allow me to refer you

[dj_destroyer]

Are you guys kidding me?

So you run an account for a year or so without touching the casino or poker, get the balance up nice and high. Then you go to a different state and log in on a public computer, play a bunch of poker and casino and hope you get lucky. If you do, no one's the wiser, you take the profits.

If you lose, however, you simply claim foul play. Like how the fukk does 60k go missing without you noticing once?

[KEdge2k]

These hacking complaints are so tough to figure out as observers -- did the guy just take a shot as dj is saying? Was he legit hacked? If so, it should be easy to track who his money went to in the poker room, but the casino makes a lot less sense. Why would a hacker play in the casino... unless the hacker was a BOL agent of some kind who just wanted to reduce this cat's balance?

[calm]

The funds got siphoned off over a period of just under three weeks. I was travelling at the time, so no unlike some of you Internet nerds I wasn't online every day to constantly check my balance. I've had large balances at plenty of the books in the past (including BOL) and never had a problem. Obviously I knew I was taking some risk with carrying such a large balance (and like I said I had been actively trying to draw down my balance with cashouts, but you know how fast that goes at BOL), but I'm betting enough where it's worth the risk IMO.

dj_destroyer, you're right to point out that BOL can't blindly refund the money because of the scenario you mentioned. However I am confident that the nature of the poker and casino action would confirm it was hacking job, and not my own attempt at a freeroll, hence why I find it very upsetting that they will not provide me with that information. I do have a list of all the transactions on my account (which I have sent to SBR Lou to assist in the investigation), and from what I can tell here's what happened:

- The hacker first accessed my account on May 4th
- He then spent the next two weeks just messing around (maybe trying to decide the best way to get my money)
- I logged into my account to request a MB withdrawal, which I received on May 15th. Even though looking back I can see at this point there were a bunch of unauthorized transactions in my account, the balance was still almost identical to the start of May (about $100 off), so I didn't suspect anything.
- The hacker must have seen the cashout go through and gotten worried that I would be cashing out my balance, so he jumped into action, transferring $60,500 to the poker room (and then dumping to friend(s)' accounts I'm guessing) from May 18th - 22nd.

Again, I think the critical piece of evidence at this point is the hand histories from the poker and casino play (which looks like was mostly multiplayer blackjack, another sign pointing towards hacking and then chip dumping IMO), which BOL is refusing to provide. So all I can do now is wait for BOL (with hopefully a gentle nudge from SBR) to conclude their investigation, and give a big middle finger to all the sportsbooks with terrible security policies (like forcing you to give your password to live chat, allowing any dishonest employee to try this sort of attack).

[Justin7]

If the money was transferred to Poker (and presumably dumped), Betonline should be able to identify the dumping, and hopefully retrieve your funds. I don't know when you first alerted Betonline, but if it was a month after the chip dumping, it does make it a lot harder to retrief the funds... If Betonline failed to notice the dumping and the money was withdrawn, it becomes a much tougher case.

Any idea how your password was hacked? Do you have a unique password at Betonline, or do you share that password with other sportsbooks?

[KEdge2k]

Wait --

"- I logged into my account to request a MB withdrawal, which I received on May 15th. Even though looking back I can see at this point there were a bunch of unauthorized transactions in my account, the balance was still almost identical to the start of May (about $100 off), so I didn't suspect anything."

What? You noticed in May something was amiss but didn't take any action(s)? Any explanation?

"- The hacker must have seen the cashout go through and gotten worried that I would be cashing out my balance, so he jumped into action, transferring $60,500 to the poker room (and then dumping to friend(s)' accounts I'm guessing) from May 18th - 22nd."

Well was it poker play only or casino play? You mention both originally but only say poker room here. You didn't personally log in at any point from May 18 to May 22?

[calm]

If the money was transferred to Poker (and presumably dumped), Betonline should be able to identify the dumping, and hopefully retrieve your funds. I don't know when you first alerted Betonline, but if it was a month after the chip dumping, it does make it a lot harder to retrief the funds... If Betonline failed to notice the dumping and the money was withdrawn, it becomes a much tougher case.

I notified BetOnline as soon as I noticed the hacking on May 22nd, asking them to suspend my account so my remaining ~$2,500 could be saved and hopefully the lost funds could be returned. So yes they had plenty of time to start an investigation and freeze any suspicious accounts on the receiving end of any chip dumps. If BOL failed to do so in time to prevent cashouts with the illegitimate funds, I would argue the onus is then on them for gross incompetence in both their general security practices (see above w.r.t. requiring players to type their passwords in plain-text in live chat) and failure to detect blatant chip dumping.

Any idea how your password was hacked? Do you have a unique password at Betonline, or do you share that password with other sportsbooks?

Yes I was using a unique password at BOL, but it wasn't very secure (only six characters). I previously used shortish, but unique, passwords because it's a pain trying to remember and then repeatedly type or read out a long password over the phone. So I think either it was an inside job by someone at BOL who got a hold of my password, or a brute force attack on my account (which would be another sign of gross incompetence by BOL for failing to suspend my account after a certain number of failed login attempts).

Wait --

"- I logged into my account to request a MB withdrawal, which I received on May 15th. Even though looking back I can see at this point there were a bunch of unauthorized transactions in my account, the balance was still almost identical to the start of May (about $100 off), so I didn't suspect anything."

What? You noticed in May something was amiss but didn't take any action(s)? Any explanation?

No, I said looking back at the transaction history I can see now that there were numerous unauthorized transactions between May 4th and May 15th. But since my balance still looked correct (it was only off $100 from what it was supposed to be), I didn't suspect anything at the time and never looked at the transaction history where I would have seen the hacker's actions.

"- The hacker must have seen the cashout go through and gotten worried that I would be cashing out my balance, so he jumped into action, transferring $60,500 to the poker room (and then dumping to friend(s)' accounts I'm guessing) from May 18th - 22nd."

Well was it poker play only or casino play? You mention both originally but only say poker room here. You didn't personally log in at any point from May 18 to May 22?

The poker transfers were where the vast majority of the money was lost. There was casino action on May 4-7, and again on the 18th, but the $60,500 taken out on the 18th through the 22nd where my account was nearly zeroed out was all from poker transfers. Correct, I didn't log-in again until the 22nd when I obviously noticed the huge loss and notified BOL CS right away.

[Justin7]

Betonline was able to recover most of the money from a player who had a similar issue. If you reported it within a few days of the transferring (and dumping), there is a good chance they can track down the money.

The problem here is that it is now 6 weeks later. Once the money is dumped and paid to other players, it becomes much harder to retrieve it.

[calm]

Betonline was able to recover most of the money from a player who had a similar issue. If you reported it within a few days of the transferring (and dumping), there is a good chance they can track down the money.

The problem here is that it is now 6 weeks later. Once the money is dumped and paid to other players, it becomes much harder to retrieve it.

They claim the investigation has taken so long because they lost access to their poker room for a month. Is that true? Even still I think my point stands: it is their fault that this has gone six weeks now with no resolution, so even if the money was already paid out to other players and is irretrievable, they should be responsible for reimbursing the funds.

[TomG]

Yikes. This is very disturbing to say the least. Both internal and external security measures appear so lax that this is bound to happen again.

So going forward, what is the recommended action plan for best resolving an issue like this? Obviously the player should notify the book as soon as possible. Should they then allow the book time to investigate, or should they file an SBR complaint immediately? What about immediately posting publicly on here, or should that wait until both SBR and the site conclude their investigation?

[username474]

I hope for your sake it was very blantant chip dumping.
Have they said that they will not share hand history with you? Make as much noise as possible if this does not go your way.
Good luck with your outcome.

[username474]

wrong quote

[username474]

Are you guys kidding me?

So you run an account for a year or so without touching the casino or poker, get the balance up nice and high. Then you go to a different state and log in on a public computer, play a bunch of poker and casino and hope you get lucky. If you do, no one's the wiser, you take the profits.

If you lose, however, you simply claim foul play. Like how the fukk does 60k go missing without you noticing once?

Are you kidding me? They have a lot of history of doing shady things to decent sized accounts. This is not pinny or cris that we are talking about here. To blindly defend a less then moral bookmaker makes you look a bit suspect.

[calm]

I found the director of the Gaming Board in Panama...



I'll see if I can get her on the case.

[5mike5]

Are you kidding me? They have a lot of history of doing shady things to decent sized accounts. This is not pinny or cris that we are talking about here. To blindly defend a less then moral bookmaker makes you look a bit suspect.

[Legions36]

Are you guys kidding me?

So you run an account for a year or so without touching the casino or poker, get the balance up nice and high. Then you go to a different state and log in on a public computer, play a bunch of poker and casino and hope you get lucky. If you do, no one's the wiser, you take the profits.

If you lose, however, you simply claim foul play. Like how the fukk does 60k go missing without you noticing once?

Im thinking the same, maybe it was someone he knew that knew he was on vacation and figured a good time to screw him. But how the hell does 60k just disappear in 3 weeks, especially being a sports better? I know for damn sure no matter where the hell im at even if im in Antarctica im not taking a 3 weeks vacation and not betting on sports, with that kind of money he obviously knows what hes doing somewhere. All i know is i have to bet every single day and check all my accounts daily, even if im on vacation-u have internet everywhere. I would like to see what happens with this.

[Monte]

Im thinking the same, maybe it was someone he knew that knew he was on vacation and figured a good time to screw him. But how the hell does 60k just disappear in 3 weeks, especially being a sports better? I know for damn sure no matter where the hell im at even if im in Antarctica im not taking a 3 weeks vacation and not betting on sports, with that kind of money he obviously knows what hes doing somewhere. All i know is i have to bet every single day and check all my accounts daily, even if im on vacation-u have internet everywhere. I would like to see what happens with this.

but you are a moron so who cares what your shilling ass does

[username474]

Im thinking the same, maybe it was someone he knew that knew he was on vacation and figured a good time to screw him. But how the hell does 60k just disappear in 3 weeks, especially being a sports better? I know for damn sure no matter where the hell im at even if im in Antarctica im not taking a 3 weeks vacation and not betting on sports, with that kind of money he obviously knows what hes doing somewhere. All i know is i have to bet every single day and check all my accounts daily, even if im on vacation-u have internet everywhere. I would like to see what happens with this.

It was chip dumping. It was stated 10 times in the thread. Your whole post is completely pointless.

[Legions36]

but you are a moron so who cares what your shilling ass does

Obviously u care cause u keep sweating my nuts and following me in plenty of threads. It took u a whole 3mins this time. Im pretty sure now your like men and i already told u before im not gay, i like women get off my sh-it.

[Legions36]

It was chip dumping. It was stated 10 times in the thread. Your whole post is completely pointless.

I never said it wasn't, he said it took a whole 3 weeks before he found out- that alone seems odd, really 3whole weeks for him not placing wagers on sports?