Party Poker wants my phone number to open an account

[rogerc]

I am angry and dismayed that Party Poker makes it mandatory that you give them a phone number or they will not open your account.
Giving your phone numnber in no way improves the security of your account in ANY way.
I agree with giving address, date of birth, etc.
These are all used to confirm the business accounts but not phone numbers.
Last time I gave a number for the next two weeks I was bombareded with the sleazy football handicappers pitching their picks at all hours of the day and night.
I will take my business else where and never do business with Party Poker as long as they have this requirement.

[AliasMrJones]

I believe they used the phone number to voice-verify my deposit. I haven't received any other calls, though it may be because I'm on the CO do not call list.

What I can't figure out is why they need a xerox of the front and back of your credit card with their preferred player application.

[Bozeman]

Party insisted on reaching me by phone before thay would cash me out (difficult since I was travelling), but they had no problem taking my deposit when I was away from the phone.

[rusty JEDI]

I think i remember something about why they do this, and it makes sense.

Due to having many problems with people paying with credit card and then gettting a charge back when they go bust. When they talk to you on the phone it is confirmation that you authorize the purchase. If you now try a charge back they can simply show the creditcard company that it was in fact you or somebody within your house because they phoned you.

This is much less invasive than the system the prima poker sites such as royal vegas are using. When you try to cashout they ask for a faxed copy of your drivers license.

[Fitz]

I've been playing a lot at Party lately, and I've done very well. What is the advantage of becoming a preferred player? Do they require a phone number to cash out, or do they need a copy of your driver's license?

Thanks,

[M.B.E.]

[ QUOTE ]
Last time I gave a number for the next two weeks I was bombareded with the sleazy football handicappers pitching their picks at all hours of the day and night.

[/ QUOTE ]

Probably coincidence. I gave Party my home number when I signed up; they called me to verify a credit card deposit. But I've received no phone calls from football handicappers, sleazy or otherwise.

[muck_nutz]

There are some pretty goofy ideas out about security.

I've had pokerstars get bent out of shape because my email didn't always seem to be coming from the same address. I use a redirector. Sometimes I use a web email account from which I can't rewrite my from address and sometimes I use a client which rewrites my from address to be that of my redirected address. Whats clear is that you shouldn't *EVER* be using the address an email appeared to come from as any form of authentication. Anybody who is shouldn't be running a poker site taking money.

I had planet sent me my password in email. WTF!? Your password should never exist in cleartext at the providers site. Anything else is a clear violation of anything approaching a clue about security. FWIW I had some tech support guy from Party claim they would do the same thing but they did it in a secure way so that only I could see it. Huh? If it exists on their server its compromised. If its sent across the Internet in plaintext its *way* compromised.

Additionally Party has a really strange clause in their user agreement which allows them to confiscate your stack if you "have played in a professional sense" (section 17 viii). Its a little terrifying because they don't define professional. Its an escape caluse which allows them to seize your monies at any point for any reason.

So, the general rule is beware about any online sites. It appears to me that many don't have a very strong clue about security. More specifically I'd be somewhat concerned about Party's willingness to take away your money on a whim. But the games there are really great...

[M.B.E.]

[ QUOTE ]
Additionally Party has a really strange clause in their user agreement which allows them to confiscate your stack if you "have played in a professional sense" (section 17 viii).

[/ QUOTE ]
Where did you find this? Section 17 viii of their current terms and conditions states they can confiscate your account balance...

"viii. If you are found cheating or if it is determined by Company that you have employed or made use of a system (including machines, computers, software or other automated systems) designed specifically to defeat the system;"

...which is reasonable in my opinion. That says nothing about playing professionally.

The above quotation is from Party's web site, accessed October 20, 2003, at this URL:

http://www.partypoker.com/about_us/legal_information.html

[muck_nutz]

That was from a copy of the same document that I printed out less then a month ago. In any case its good to see they changed it.

[mosch]

Glad to hear you're taking this seemingly irrational stand; fewer 2+2ers means more fish for me! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

I have accounts with party and empire, and when setting up each account they called, did voice-verification, then never ever called again. I prefer a single phone call to being required to fax my driver's license. With both my party and empire accounts this verification was done within a few days of account signup, and since then cash-outs have proceeded expeditiously, never taking more than a day or two to process.