pokeredge attacking my computer

[Ezcheeze]

About a week ago pokerstars sent me the following email:

[ QUOTE ]
Hello,

Upon a review of your account, we find that you have been accessing a web site known as Poker Edge, while playing on PokerStars. Please be aware that this is against the terms of service to which you agreed when opening your PokerStars account. Those terms of service are located here:

http://www.pokerstars.com/tos.html

Among them are these terms:

4.4 EXTERNAL PLAYER ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS (EPA). PokerStars
prohibits External player assistance programs ("EPA
Programs") which are designed to provide an "Unfair
Advantage" to players. PokerStars defines External to
mean computer software (other than the PokerStars game
client provided by PokerStars), and non-software-based
databases or profiles (e.g. web sites and subscription
services). PokerStars defines an "Unfair Advantage" as a
User accessing or compiling information on other players
beyond that which the User has personally observed through
the User's own game play. We encourage you to read our
Prohibited Programs FAQ at:

http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/room/prohibited/

At this time, we are issuing you a warning for the use of prohibited software that is explicitly listed as forbidden on the above Prohibited Programs FAQ. Please refrain from visiting or using poker-edge.com while playing on PokerStars.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Sincerely,

Jeff
PokerStars Support Supervisor


[/ QUOTE ]

I then replied:

[ QUOTE ]
Hello,

I do not use any non-software-based databases or profiles or any external player assistance programs. I have never heard of "Poker Edge" before reading this email. You must have made a mistake in reviewing my account, or maybe you reviewed someone else's account and by mistake thought it was mine. The programs I use are Pokertracker and Poker Ace Hud. Pokertracker keeps track of all of my hand hisotries that I play and uses them to provide me with valuable statistics about my play, but only my hand histories which I have played and it does not use and external assistance. Poker Ace Hud just takes the statistics from my Pokertracker database and displays them on my screen so I can view them conveniently. Based on the definition you gave, I do not believe these programs are External Assistance Programs.

I would like to reiterate that I have never used "Poker Edge" and it has never been installed on my computer, or any computer I have ever used to play poker on Pokerstars.

I hope we can clear up this matter.


[/ QUOTE ]

They came back with:

[ QUOTE ]
It may be that you only visited their website, which is enough to trigger
the warning. The PokerStars client observed you connecting to IP address
69.16.197.169 (www.poker-edge.com) on December 31st at 11:05 am ET, via
Norton's proxy:

Poker-Edge.com:601:0?69.16.197.169:80?
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccProxy.exe

Provided you refrain from further visits to that website, everything
should be fine. PokerTracker and PAHUD are perfectly acceptable add-ons
on PokerStars.

Best Regards,

Jeff
PokerStars Support Supervisor


[/ QUOTE ]

I kept playing for a few days but didn't do anything about it and then I received a copy of the first email again (must be automated). I replied to this with:

[ QUOTE ]
Hi Jeff,

We spoke not too long ago about the same problem. I am really baffeled as to how I am accessing this site. To my knowledge I have never visited the site. This worries me as it suggests they are connecting to my computer without my consent. Is it possible they are tracking my hand histories or even viewing my hole cards? Well, I just now went into my Norton Firewill and blocked all connections to and from this website so it shouldn't be a problem in the future.

Thank you for notifying me so promptly again,

[/ QUOTE ]

They replied:

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for taking that step. Yes, it is Norton that has been seen making
the connection, most recently:

January 4, 2007 00:37:30
Network Poker-Edge.com:69.16.197.169:80
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccProxy.exe

I cannot say whether they are tracking YOUR hole cards from remote. To
the best of my knowledge, that's not something that the software does.
(That's another level of evil, in a package called "WinHoldem". When we
detect WinHoldem, we remove playing privileges until the player
acknowledges the software is removed!).

That said, I can't say that Edge *isn't* doing that, either. They're
unethical enough to flagrantly ignore our terms of service, and market a
program to players with full knowledge that those customers will be
breaking our terms of service. If they'll do that.... who knows what else
they might do. I therefore wouldn't trust their software on *my*
computer, even if it were permitted.

Best Regards,

Jeff
PokerStars Support Supervisor



[/ QUOTE ]

A few days went by and nothing relating to this happened until about 10 minutes ago Norton popped up with an alert saying it blocked an attack on my computer from the IP address corresponding to the pokerdge website.

Has anyone else had an experience like this? Also, I imagine that pokeredge trying to access my computer without my permission is illegal. Is there somewhere to report this offense?

[Ezcheeze]

Bump

[kyleb]

This is really interesting. I've never heard of it.

[edfurlong]

This is probably a retarded question, but are you the only one that uses your computer?

[betgo]

I don't know if this is hijacking the thread, but what is pokeredge, and why is it not allowed on Stars?

[tangled]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know if this is hijacking the thread, but what is pokeredge, and why is it not allowed on Stars?

[/ QUOTE ]


Good question. Maybe you could go to their site and check it out and let us know. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[betgo]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't know if this is hijacking the thread, but what is pokeredge, and why is it not allowed on Stars?

[/ QUOTE ]


Good question. Maybe you could go to their site and check it out and let us know. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]
No thanks after reading OP. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

I may try it from an Internet cafe or library. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[PokerEdge]

I'm going to have to chip in here...

Ezcheeze, I'm not sure exactly what is going on from your description but I can assure you that Poker-Edge is not "attacking" your computer, or performing any unauthorized activity. We have thousands of current users, many of whom run advanced security software, and there has never been an issue involving unauthorized activity.

Just to get the facts straight - Poker-Edge is prohibited on exactly 2 sites: PartyPoker and PokerStars. However, we do have security in place for these sites, but that's an entirely different conversation. We do support over 100 other sites where Poker-Edge is NOT prohibited.

Ezcheeze, I would like to talk to you more about this issue to figure out whats going on, if you want to email us at support AT poker-edge dot com.

[oneeye13]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm going to have to chip in here...

Ezcheeze, I'm not sure exactly what is going on from your description but I can assure you that Poker-Edge is not "attacking" your computer, or performing any unauthorized activity. We have thousands of current users, many of whom run advanced security software, and there has never been an issue involving unauthorized activity.

Just to get the facts straight - Poker-Edge is prohibited on exactly 2 sites: PartyPoker and PokerStars. However, we do have security in place for these sites, but that's an entirely different conversation. We do support over 100 other sites where Poker-Edge is NOT prohibited.

Ezcheeze, I would like to talk to you more about this issue to figure out whats going on, if you want to email us at support AT poker-edge dot com.

[/ QUOTE ]

haha you are busted skeezeball

[Ezcheeze]

[ QUOTE ]
This is probably a retarded question, but are you the only one that uses your computer?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes.