FTP locks my account for excess transfers, refuse to answer emails.

[APerfect10]

[ QUOTE ]
June 22nd


Hello Kyle,


I apologize for the the confusion regarding your account.


You're account has been locked because a large number of player
transfers have been going to various players in the UK who receive the
large transfer, play a minimum of fixed limit games and then withdraws
the whole amount within the same day. I do understand that these
transfer are for staking players as you have stated but what isn't clear
is why Full Tilt Poker is needed in these transactions.


When you transfer funds to a player who then withdraws a large amount in
comparison to what type of games they are playing this does pose certain
security issues regarding the use of the funds. If you were to stake a
player on the site and the money was used to buyin to various
tournaments or ring games this would not be an issue as we can see
clearly what the funds were used for and that they were used in
legitimate play. In this situation the funds almost immediately leave
the site and occasionally come back on and funds send to your
FCommunists account. This is were the issue lies as this blurs the
nature of the funds. If the funds were intended for off-site use then
you can transfer the funds from your payment processor account to
another account rather than move the funds on Full Tilt Poker.


Can you please explain to us why it is necessary to move the funds on
Full Tilt Poker rather than using a payment processor account and
directly transfer the money? Once we receive an answer we'll look into
the situation as soon as possible. I apologize for the inconvenience.


Regards,


Antonio
Full Tilt Poker Support

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this email answers all of your questions and poses some questions that I think you should answer.

1. Obviously you are transferring a "large" sum of money to players who are playing a minimum of fixed limit hands. I interpret this to mean they are not playing enough hands to cover the costs of transfers. I do not take this to mean they are playing a minimum to cover the costs. I could be wrong.

2. If you are honestly only staking players to play poker. Then why the large transfers in regards to the games they are playing. For instance, if someone is playing $1/2 they do not need a 5k bankroll. And why are you staking players if they are not even playing? Only playing a minimum amount of hands? Seems awfully shady to me.

If you would be transferring a legitimate amount of money to players for the games they play and they are truly using your money to be staked playing poker then you would have had no problems. Instead it seems you are involved in some type of shady business here.

Now that doesnt give FTP the right to take over a month to investigate this issue. I think they should cash out your account and permanently close it. This shouldnt take long at all... The only reason for an investigation to take this long is if the money isnt clean and FTP has a responsibility to recover these funds; however, that does not appear to be the case here.

[kickabuck]

I am not a fan of the way Full Tilt conducts business and that is specifically why I stopped playing there many months ago, but I have to agree with Milton here. In this current hostile U.S. environment, why the heck are you using Full Tilt as a means to fund sports betting sites? Do you really expect them to turn a blind eye to this blatant abuse of funds transfers? You might as well have said you thought it was okay to transfer funds for your buddies heroin shipments, as long as they played enough to cover the money transfer charges. I'm confident FTP is handling this situation poorly, but in this hostile environment I don't blame them for taking action to end this activity.

[limitninja]

When my pokerstars account was locked for same reason, all it took is one email to them and explanation and they gave me a warning and reopened my account, the whole ordeal took less than 24 hours. But since FTP doesn't have compotent people working for them this will take forever.

[Thremp]

I don't see why poker sites investigate these things so "thoroughly". People frown when their bank asks "How did you get this check? Is it foreign? Is it from gaming? I will have to put a 397128 day hold on it." Yet here FTP manages to not only freeze funds for an extended period, it seems they are confiscating funds (I'll assume a week plus of nonresponse as such).

Wouldn't poker sites be better served by communication? Such as.

[ QUOTE ]
Dear XXXXXXXXX,

You have been making a ton of whack transfers recently. We suspect you are a dirty cheating criminal. Because of this we are restricting your ability to transfer funds to other other players or receive funds from other players. Please review policy number XXXXX.

Sincerely,
Poker Site

[/ QUOTE ]

Here they can at least explain the problem, the solution and then allow the original account holder to determine what happens. Does he continue to play? Does he not?

Withholding funds without reason is probably the #1 scariest thing. I'd rather live with 2-3 bots on every site, which seems to cause so much outrage. Instead of worrying about my funds being seized when there is no fraudulent activity wrt FTP.

[Vertical Taco]

[ QUOTE ]
A few months ago, I asked a supervisor at FTP who I know personally if there would be a problem in buying into FTP and transferring funds to various people I know to stake them for poker.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
When my pokerstars account was locked for same reason, all it took is one email to them and explanation and they gave me a warning and reopened my account, the whole ordeal took less than 24 hours. But since FTP doesn't have compotent people working for them this will take forever.

[/ QUOTE ]

If he had help on the inside.......it will take a lot longer than 24 hours for this to reach a resolution.......

[AJackson]

FTP,

You guys never seem to learn. We're reasonably intelligent people and we understand that you have to protect your site. What we don't understand and are continually frustrated with is your lack of communication. There seems to be no sense of urgency on your part and you seem completely oblivious to the concerns of your players when their money is locked up like this for long periods of time.

I pay 6 figures each year in rake and there is very little chance of your company getting any of business.

[cardman]

[ QUOTE ]
...

Withholding funds without reason is probably the #1 scariest thing. I'd rather live with 2-3 bots on every site, which seems to cause so much outrage. Instead of worrying about my funds being seized when there is no fraudulent activity wrt FTP.

[/ QUOTE ]

QFMFT. Also, why ignore the customer for so long? Can't they at least respond to e-mails and update so that the customer knows WTF is going on?

[limitninja]

or at least tell people there are no updates yet

[trixtrix]

[ QUOTE ]
"uhh.. so what does that have to do w/ ftp freezing 5 digits of his br? wouldn't the proper procedure be to cash him out and close his acct, if ftp didn't like the way he transferred funds?"

According to the posts, some of the money flowed back to him, correct ? So, I think it is reasonable to review the matter.

I suspect that, despite his clear abuse of player transfers on FTP, his funds will be released after they are done looking at this.

(I have no connection to ftp, and do not have an account there. I just marvel at how myopic posters gloss over details like "I was using FTP to launder money to people for sports-betting, unrelated to poker.")

[/ QUOTE ]

so then by inference, you believe that neteller is absolutely correct in freezing all u.s account holders' funds, due to the possibility of u.s customers just "might" use those funds to launder to "illegal" internet gambling operations?

i mean, the sites are absolutely within their "rights" to freeze your acct and perform whatever "investigations" they deem appropriate to "benefit" us. no due process nor clear/concise communication is needed nor required, since clearly we should just trust that corporations like ftp/neteller clearly have our best interests in mind when they perform these "routine" checks/freezes..

[ImsaKidd]

[ QUOTE ]
FTP,

You guys never seem to learn. We're reasonably intelligent people and we understand that you have to protect your site. What we don't understand and are continually frustrated with is your lack of communication. There seems to be no sense of urgency on your part and you seem completely oblivious to the concerns of your players when their money is locked up like this for long periods of time.

I pay 6 figures each year in rake and there is very little chance of your company getting any of business.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thank god for pokerstars. I find it unusual when they take more than 24 hours to respond to my concierge request.