FTP Answers: Special Fraud Edition

[FTPDoug]

1. "Where has Doug been?"

- Thanks for asking! Thursday morning through the weekend I was in Paris. By the time I had gotten back from Paris and took at look at the ericjones thread, it had become such a monstrosity that commenting in it would have been mostly worthless, and I didn't want to start a new thread without more to report. So last night there was a meeting discussing, among other things, the ericjones thread. And now I'm here.

2. "I'm still not convinced ericjones is guilty! Why won't Doug post more details?"

- I'm not posting more details because I've posted enough details. Our methods of investigating fraud and the details of the results of the investigation are not for public consumption. However, I did just PM Mike Haven some more details regarding this specific case, and hopefully he will chime in on this thread and say whether or not he's convinced. Other than possibly providing Mike a few more details if he requests them, I'm done with this case.

3. "The communication between the fraud department and the player under investigation is terrible!"

- Much of the meeting last night was focused on the various concerns expressed in the threads relating to the fraud department (and related customer support dealings). A number of things were explained to me, and some policies were modified. The communication issue was the biggest modification:

Our new policy for communication between a player under investigation and customer support will start within 24 hours of the player's account being locked. They will receive an email stating that their account has been locked and letting the player know what they can expect during the investigation process.

During the investigation, we usually can't provide much in the way of detail regarding the investigation, but anything a player provides us that might speed the investigation along will certainly be welcomed. We will also strive to keep the player updated on any progress made, although setting timelines for the completion of the investigation will almost always be impossible.

And finally, the biggest change in the communication policy, when the investigation is over and the decision has been made, the player will be provided a post-investigation summary that describes (at a high level) the reason for the investigation and the results. If found guilty, the player should then have enough information to defend himself (or, way more likely, go away quietly knowing he was caught).

4. "Why do the investigations take so long?"

- The ericjones investigation took a little over 7 weeks (September 7th - November 2nd). This is not the average time it takes an investigation, but it also isn't all that rare for an investigation to take this long. The fact is, the actual investigation part of the vast majority of investigations are done within 2 weeks (and usually under a week). A lot of the "investigation" is actually just waiting for the credit card chargebacks to come through and confirm the fraud. Often times, this can take a month or more (a person doesn't realize their credit card has been stolen until they get their next bill, they have to actually look at and pay their bills in a timely manner, etc) and there's just nothing our fraud department can do to speed that up.

Having said all of that, we're definitely hiring more people for the fraud department and will do everything in our power to keep investigation times as short as possible.

5. "My account is locked and I'm totally innocent! I'm going to post about it and PM FTPDoug and make his life miserable."

- WAIT, WAIT! Another fantastic idea we had in this meeting was to relieve me of any and all fraud or support related duties. (To quote Dante Hicks, "I'm not even supposed to be here today!")

So as not to leave 2+2 in the lurch with nobody to complain to about that stuff, we got one of the lead support and fraud guys to create an account here. Say hello to FTPSean! From now on, FTPSean will be addressing support related issues and threads. He won't, however, be accepting PMs. If he were to accept PMs, your account details and specifics on your case would exist here in a PM box instead of in our support offices where it would do the most good. So if you have a very specific account related question, it's still best to email Support@fulltiltpoker.com . I have passed along any support related issues that have been sent to me via PMs, and in the future those should instead be sent via email to Support@FullTiltPoker.com for FTPSean and his teams to address. FTPSean will act as an escalated support liason to the 2+2 community. That is, he won't directly address specific account issues, but he will make sure that support addresses your account issue as soon as possible. He will also happily address support-specific policies and procedures.

Meanwhile, I'll be blissfully posting about the game itself, features, promotions, tournaments, and general non-support related questions.

As I sign off from dealing with this kind of issue ever again (please please), I just want to remind everyone that our main goal with all of these cases is to provide our players with a clean game. When mistakes are made (and I've been very forthright when we've made mistakes) we try to learn and improve from them. So, thanks to everyone that provided constructive feedback in that massive thread and its offspring, and I hope we've addressed most of your concerns.

Look for a real answers thread soon after the next update! It's a good one.

(Here's an early answer: Resizable tables are not in this update.)

Doug

[Gotmilk]

Thank you. Mostly this is all I wanted to see (the send to Mike Haven type stuff).

[berya]

On a totally different note...

I think your multi table tournaments are much better than Stars and this is coming from a big time Stars lover.

keep up the good work.

[MicroBob]

Doug, thanks a ton for posting this.
Your disappearance from the discussion was, well, kind of creepy.

Good to see you back and glad to hear that FT is taking our concerns so seriously to address it in their meetings.


Still kind of curious why eric can't get his own HH's upon request. But perhaps Mike knows a little more about that.

Overall though, I feel a lot more comfortable.

[PopFreak]

Props to you Doug and to FTP, Your's is the only site I play on, and once again you guys didnt let me down.

[Mike Haven]

I confirm that FTPDoug has sent me comprehensive details about all of the games played by the first account that ericjones had. Six of the players from whom he won substantial sums, in different sessions over a period of five days, have later had their accounts locked for credit card fraud.

I was told that the same computer was used by ericjones' second account, as well as two other players who have both since had their accounts locked for credit card fraud.

His second account was involved in play with one player, over three sessions, who has since had his account locked for credit card fraud.

Assuming all the information is true, (and I have been given times, names, numbers of hands, and amounts involved; not hand numbers nor histories), in my opinion, it is absolutely obvious that anyone seeing this information would agree that ericjones was the intended recipient of funds obtained by credit card fraud, and it was only after having received a very considerable sum that he played legitimate games, presumably as "cover play" before attempting to withdraw the money.

FTPDoug has stated that he has given me the details in strictest confidence and he has asked that I do not reveal specific information. Obviously, I will honour his request, and I am therefore unable to add anything further.

[Synergistic Explosions]

[ QUOTE ]
I was told that the same computer was used by ericjones' second account, as well as two other players who have both since had their accounts locked for credit card fraud.

[/ QUOTE ]

How shocking! My oh my.

[SweetPea]

Thanks for the follow up, Doug.

Voicing displeasure with the process != defending the accused.

[TimWillTell]

[BurnleyMik]

All i can say is thankyou very much for this thread guys. I am sure you have done FTP an absolute world of good by doing what you have above.

I too now believe eric has got to be guilty of recieving funds from credit card fraudsters. I think that FTP have behaved very commendably in getting back here are reassuring all its players.

I personally will now come back to play on your site and have confidence in doing so. I appreciate the fact that you passed the case info to an independant party (as asked to) and let them make up their own mind on the matter and as far I am concerned Mike has now made it clear that eric is guilty....thanks for taking the time mike.

Also I really like that you have looked over how to improve the fraud investigations and how to keep the player involved completely up-to-date and provide them with details on exactly what they have done.

And finally getting someone from the fraud department to sign up here and address concerns....excellent work guys!!!

Well Done!!