My Party Poker account was hacked, lost $600

[Revid]

Last Friday I deposited $600 into Party to get the June bonus. I left for the weekend and came back on Sunday night. Logged into Party to clear some of the bonus and my balance was at $0. I did not panic at first, I thought maybe I had withdrawn it and transferred to another site. After ruling that out I looked at my bonus info page and saw that 48 hands had been played toward clearing the bonus.

I did not remember playing any hands since my last deposit so I requested a hand history of my last 50 hands. Looking through the hand history I saw that on Saturday (when i was out of town) someone logged into my account and played a 6max NL 2-4 game. Almost all of the hands I played I lost to the same person and the final hand was my last $200 and was lost to boat over boat. It seems they were trying to disguise the money dumping somewhat and finally had a hand where they could get all my money in for a loss.

Before even looking at these hand histories I had emailed party support and they replied saying that I deposited 600 on Friday and lost it all on Saturday (thanks for the info).

After coming to my own conclusions I first changed my Party password and then called them up. I was transferred 3 times, each time I had to explain the situation. The last transfer was to there fraud department and they told me to change my password, do not check the "save password" box at login, and to not let anyone else have access to my account. He said there would be a 24 hour investigation and I would receive the results in an Email.

Here is the results of their "investigation":
<font color="green">
Dear Brian,
Thank you for contacting us. As per records we see that you made a deposit of $600 on
03-JUN-2005 18:22 EST, played on couple of tables and loosed all your
money. However, if you wish to check your account activity
from your end please follow below procedure. In the lobby
menu, please click on “My Account” and then on “Go to My
Account (website)”. On the right hand side, you will find a heading
”Other Options”. The second option under this heading is
”View the activity of your Account”. Click on it and you can view
your account activity information for 30 days prior to your last log in
time. You can view this data for a week at a time. Note: Please do not disclose your password to any individual/organization claiming
to represent us. We will never ask you for the password to your account. If
you receive any email or phone call from anyone requesting you to provide
your password please report it to us immediately, Our
Customer Care Department is available 24/7 to assist you via
email, Thank you for choosing us as your online gaming
site!
</font>
(sorry for the poor formatting but it is copied from an HTML email.)

Uh, what? What happened to the investigation? Usually after "However,” there would be a result.

I am going to call them back again of course. I would like to know if anyone has had any sort of problem like this. Does it seem like they are trying to blow me off? Do I deserve a refund?

If anyone would like to see the hand history and how they dumped the money from one player to another let me know.

Thanks for listening.

[jaym]

That sucks. They seriously need to polish the turd they call Party Customer Service. I don't think you are entitled to a refund, because it doesn't sound like Party was negligent in your account getting hacked. I suppose if you can prove the chip dumping theory, which seems pretty plausible from your story, then they might go after the other guy and get some of your money back that way. I wouldn't expect Party to just pay you $600 though.
Keep us posted.

[MicroBob]

you can try to get more info on the other player involved. You already have his party handle obviously.

I would contact their fraud-team again and say that the e-mail they sent was ridiculously unsatisfactory.


I would also think about your password.
Could someone have figured it out (your kid's name or a common word)?
Is your password the same as on another site? (if your password for your e-mail is the same...then maybe some support person could get at it)
Did you type your password ANYWHERE (perhaps you accidentally gave it someone via a phish-type e-mail)?
Did you play on someone else's computer at some time?
Has anyone else been on your computer at any time (including 'Did you take it to a shop at some point'?)
Do you suspect there was a key-logger installed somehow?

[jason_t]

This is the most brilliant doubling up scheme I have ever heard.

[ZenMusician]

Did the guy really say you "loosed" all your money?

POINT THEM HERE

-ZEN

[Bluffoon]

One time I logged onto my account but the focus was on a table chat window instead of the password box. So I typed my password right into the user box. Fortunately I realized immediately what I did and I changed my password.

Could you have done something boneheaded like this?

[Revid]

I forgot to say that they sent me an excel file with IP addresses that logged into my account and table transactions. And you can clearly tell that there is one different IP address that connected on Saturday.

This is the IP address: 4.239.186.7

If you go to a site like http://psacake.com/web/eg.asp
You can see where the IP originated from. I live in Oregon and the IP is from CO it seems.

[Revid]

[ QUOTE ]
This is the most brilliant doubling up scheme I have ever heard.

[/ QUOTE ]

I am sure you are joking but you bring up a good point. If Party thinks that I am in on it then why would they want to help me. I have no defense really if they were to accuse me of this. The consistency in my play is the only thing I have going for me. I play Primarily at Party and take advantage of every reload they offer. I use my Players Club Points whenever I can and have never played above 1/2 tables. So I think one day all of the sudden my account is logged into from another state and all of my money is dumped to one player in a NL game I have never played in before sounds legit.


My unsecure password was probably the problem. I own an IT business so I am actually quite embarrased that i used such a lousy password. Rest assured all my accounts are strong passwords now.

[jvphish]

[ QUOTE ]
I forgot to say that they sent me an excel file with IP addresses that logged into my account and table transactions. And you can clearly tell that there is one different IP address that connected on Saturday.

This is the IP address: 4.239.186.7

If you go to a site like http://psacake.com/web/eg.asp
You can see where the IP originated from. I live in Oregon and the IP is from CO it seems.

[/ QUOTE ]

if this is the truth i see no reason why they shouldnt be trying to link that IP address to whatever the guy's screen name is whom you think did this.

[Justin A]

This happened to a 2+2er I know with his Eurobet account, and the damage was about $5k for him. Unfortunately there is nothing Party can do about it unless they can prove chip dumping and get the money back from the player the money was dumped to. Party can not be held responsible when this type of thing happens for obvious reasons. I'd recommend changing your password every few weeks or so to prevent something like this from happening again.