Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 2437
High-stakes online poker player Douglas Polk, otherwise known by his PokerStars username WCGRider, recounted a harrowing tale of deception, theft and retribution. In a post , Polk explained that his computer was recently compromised, allowing remote viewing of Polk’s hole cards during play. That exploit – confirmed by PokerStars – allowed the unknown cheater to win some $35k from Polk. PokerStars has refunded all but a few hundred dollars of the losses. And Polk has identified a person he believes could be behind the scam.
Joined: Oct '11
Location: Germany
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 154
wow thats pretty sick. first the fact that PS admitted that and second and even more impressive is that stars refunded the money to Polk.There you can just see why Pokerstars is the leader in online poker plattforms. there are so many scandals about online poker these days and stars want to keep their clean image. nice move by them
Joined: May '13
Location: Mauritius
Age: 33 (M)
Posts: 2688
Great job from pokerstars, refunding the money and admitting to the mistake.
Also glad he got back his money, well nowadays hackers are getting better so this was bound to happen sooner or later and will continue to happen but great handling, that will cement Pokerstars place as no1!! GREAT Publicity!
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 48 (F)
Posts: 14196
With todays technology, some peoples knowledge in the computer department and programming long with some determination this is not too hard to happen. Good thing he got refunded.
Joined: May '09
Location: Estonia
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 777
That is amazing that PokerStars refunded the stolen money. Never thought they would do something like that. Really positively surprised. I hope they catch the cheater and he should get criminal charges, stealing is stealing!
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 61 (M)
Posts: 3361
I'm going tohave to say that there's details to this entire story that we'll never know and that's probably best since it would only promote the opportunity for other hacker type individuals to get involved. One doesn't even need to describe how such an event could occur just a general idea and asMober stated, someone with programming / computer skils that excel above the normal being could cause detrimental discouragement to players. That's why there's companies that do nothing but monitor computer fraud.
Joined: Feb '12
Location: Canada
Age: 65 (M)
Posts: 6036
I have trouble believing that it's some sort of promotional gimmick,...but hey, you never know...
There's been many instances in the past where some crooked folks have used some sort of spying software to read folks' hole cards.
On several occassions PokerStars has returned my buy in from tourneys gone wrong,....so at least I can say they have the 'appearance' of having integrity... I would bet that some of those smaller flim-flam sites would have put up a fight so as not to have to pay folks and their losses due to these kinds of problems...
35K that's a lot of this crook will probably get caught and get a lifetime ban (Alex Rodriguez maybe also) these kind of people need too some sort of punishment the best is too pay a fine in my opinion
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 48 (F)
Posts: 14196
They should pursue the matter further than just a ban from the poker site. Pretty sure they can follow up with criminal charges about that. Isnt it a criminal offence?
Joined: Nov '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 41 (M)
Posts: 747
WCGRider is too trusting I think remember the brad booth scandal Someone definatly had access to his computer to make this happen so you have to be careful nowerdays
Joined: Jun '08
Location: Poland
Age: 85 (M)
Posts: 545
So Poker Stars just shot themselves in the foot by saying that it's possible to see the opponent card by using special programs....if one did, so the other can also do and the only reason they investigate that situation was a rapport from potential victim.
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 6669
Mober is right, this is not just a scam, it's indeed a pretty serious legal matter.
The only thing we do not know is from where the scammer is, if it's from a country in which online crime is not reglemented there is not much you can do about it...
Joined: Nov '12
Location: Belgium
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 26
They can freeze the account of the hacker for further investigation... I'm sure they will do that... If he is from a country where online crime is not reglemented he'll still be in violation of the laws in the country Polk.
