Caution against joining Party Poker

[Edge34]

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Sue them? Good luck. Do you know what country their head office is registered in? Where would you even send your lawyer?

If you put a copy of your passport, credit card signature, bank account details and drivers license, into a private and unregulated companies' database, you are asking for big trouble. That databse would be worth a fortune and in the wrong hands... I'm very surprised that others here have done that.

And as honest as any company is, there are always dishonest people within them.

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If you're not going to listen to the people who are unbelievably more experienced than you - which is why you're here in the first place, right? - then you should really just go back wherever you came from. If you don't want our help in getting you your money back, then you don't deserve it back.

You're telling people who have played online for YEARS that they're wrong in their advice. BTW, Party is not a private company, PartyGaming is publicly traded in Europe, and Mike O'Malley (an American poker writer/player) is their marketing "face". Say what you want about him, but they've got too much to lose to try to steal a few hundred dollars from you when hundreds of thousands are wagered (and raked) each day.

EDIT (cliffs notes): If you're too dumb to take advice when you ask for it, you're too dumb to get your money back. Sorry to come off harsh, but when you ask for advice and admit you're a noob, then don't take it, you're not starting well here.

[stompin]

Any good poker site would request the same given the circumstances.

Also it is passport OR drivers licence. they just need to check that identity = credit card, signatures the same and address matches what you signed up with.

They may even validate all this info with bank account you provide...so if you are scamming you may be out of luck...if your legit then should be pretty easy to resolve in 2-3 days.

[ZBTHorton]

OP,

I've been reading 2p2 for the better part of 3-4 years now, and I have seen literally thousands of "can I trust Party poker?" and "they want my SSN? ZOMG!" posts.

In this time, I don't ever remember seeing a SINGLE post from a SINGLE person talking about activity from a poker site having to do with them using personal information for anything. I consider these major poker sites to be no different than a bank, and if you feel differently...obviously you don't need to be gambling online.

[MicroBob]

I hate giving such info and went out of my way to have to do it anywhere. I wouldn't play at a site if they required such stuff.

I got lucky for awhile but finally I ended up on a couple sites where they required it for a cash-out.
It's annoying, but it's not like I didn't want my money.

Letting them keep a few hundred dollars of your money over these concerns is a bit over-the-top to any of us who have been doing this for awhile.
But considering letting them just keep the money is pretty understandable in a way also considering how much media paranoia there is about not giving this stuff to anybody or you will end up in some kind of nightmare identity-theft scenario.

[adanthar]

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I hate giving such info and went out of my way to have to do it anywhere. I wouldn't play at a site if they required such stuff.

I got lucky for awhile but finally I ended up on a couple sites where they required it for a cash-out.
It's annoying, but it's not like I didn't want my money.

Letting them keep a few hundred dollars of your money over these concerns is a bit over-the-top to any of us who have been doing this for awhile.
But considering letting them just keep the money is pretty understandable in a way also considering how much media paranoia there is about not giving this stuff to anybody or you will end up in some kind of nightmare identity-theft scenario.

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The ridiculous thing is that people are fine giving out their CC # and all their personal ID to a site (just like to any other merchant), but balk at faxing in their DL or passport.

I never got the memo that explained why the DL/passport/other ID would make a lick of difference when somebody on the back end who already had access to a)all of your details and b)all the money you had deposited in the site decided to sell your info to a hacker for mad lootz. Either you trust the site (more appropriately, their security department) or you don't.

[Botchman]

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What happens when someone in that organization decides the database of everyone's passport and credit card images, might be worth a LOT of money and sells it on? You need those things to open bank accounts and to conduct large withdrawls. You just dont email images of those things to non-government agencies. Especially not to unregulated private companies.

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LOL, dude theses business's want your money and will make alot more of it by running legit. It's not possible for crooks to be in government agencies?? I find your post very amusing, If I wanted I could find out all YOUR info regardless of who you've sent it to.

[bornready]

Okay, i think you guys might be missing the point. It is not that Partypoker is dishonest, it is that databases are not secure. This is why any half responsible company would not even want a digital copy of your credit card signature, your passport and license on their database.


Do you have any idea just how easy it is for people to steal databases? I think anyone that would consider emailing their credit card signature and passport to any company is a fool. They are asking for their entire bank account to be cleaned out. Not to mention passport fraud.

Here is one example : in 2003 Simson Garfinkela, a privacy expert from MIT bought 158 second hand hard drives on EBAY. From those he collected 5000 credit card numbers, financial and medical records , and lots of pornography. You can find a lot of other examples.

Even when reformatted, information can easilly be retrieved from hard drives. If people are desperate, they will just steal the computers. Or insiders are offered money to sell it on. Happens a lot.

Now imagine, on that hard drive they have your bank account details, your passport, and your credit card signature. Doesnt take einstein to figure out what happens next when it is sold on.
Companies verify the information using login details, and if required you can ring and talk to people personally.

If partypoker really intended to give my money back, they would have just refunded the card it came from, or talked to me. They were happy just to put my money into their account, and not try very hard at all to give it back when i asked for it.

Anyway - my credit card provider was shown what happened. They were excellent. They reversed the transaction from PArty Poker and refunded my money. Obviously banks arent too happy to have their customers emailing credit card signatures, account details and passports around either.


Warning stands : if you want to retreive your money without emailing your passport or license and credit card signature, then dont use party poker. if u are comfortable having that info on other people's computer database, be my guest.

(oh and to "mr Experienced Listen to my Wisdon" poster above: - you may be more experienced with playing poker, but not with internet security. And this wasnt a post asking for your poker playing tips)

[Bobo Fett]

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Warning stands : if you want to retreive your money without emailing your passport or license and credit card signature, then dont enter the card security number (hundreds of dollars) in the amount section by mistake

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FYP [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[bornready]

yeah constructive comment - i know lots of guys like you who reckon they never make mistakes. top fellas with lots of friends.

[Bobo Fett]

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yeah constructive comment - i know lots of guys like you who reckon they never make mistakes. top fellas with lots of friends.

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LOL. Good to see you know so much about me from one post. Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm aware that I make plenty of mistakes, and I have plenty of friends, thanks. If you can't see the humour in the fact that you are soooo concerned about the security of your information, and then make a mistake like that, well, what can I say.

As to constructive comments, I've seen plenty, but you're not too interested.

You've warned us all, and I for one thank you for it.

BTW, you're in the Zoo, you might want to get yourself a thicker skin. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Edit: I'm being too nice. You know what? I DID fix your post. As many have told you, what is happening at Party is equally likely to happen at many other sites if such a mistake is made. Therefore, the lesson to be learned from your post is that we should all try not to make such mistakes when making a deposit.

I hope you are able to get your money back in a way that satisfies your concerns about your privacy. Now, unless you have something new to say, move along.