Your money is not secure on Party Poker

[x2ski]

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Those that present true facts can generally get the the zoo on their side and can get good results just generally people take some convincing and generally the claims are not true.

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Generally speaking of course.

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Generally.

[Orpheus]

Allow me to suggest the following:

Don't call it a "online gambling site". Say the money was stolen from your "online account" -- but don't hesitate to give the URL when asked. Party Poker is legitimate enough to advertise on prime time TV. It offers free play. It sells mechandise! There are plent of easons to have money in an online account other than gambling. Don't lie, of course, but don't frame it as a gambling issue. It isn't.

Sure, there's no assurance that some fundamentalist detective might not decide to get medieval on the victim, but frankly, it's a pretty minimal risk. Heck, I can't remember the last "friendly money game" that didn't have a cop playing. Firemen and town workers are big poker players, too, around here. Every Medical Chief of Staff at my hospital for the past 30 years has hosted a friendly weekly game, alternating with the Chief of Police. It's a joking tradition: "We can't get busted, there's a cop in the game."

Cops see more of the seamy side of life than most of us. They know where their efforts are best spent, and getting officious or prudish about online gambling would make about as much sense as raiding a home game -- and how often do you read about *that* in the paper? (Of course if you *do* read about such busts in your local paper's crime log, then everything I've said doesn't apply.)

Busting a thief or fraud artist, on the other hand, is bread and butter crimefighting. It's no different than stealing from any other computer or online account. Just spell out the process in clear and simple terms. Unless someone in the department plays online poker (and it's a fair bet someone does), it could be confusing. Heck, how many 2+2'ers have displayed a woeful lack of understanding of the agents/process that they use routinely?

Here's what you emphasize:
1) My money was stolen
2) I know the culprit
3) I can point you at the money trail (You know the name and withdrawal method; they can take it from there)
4) The Internet Merchant understands and agrees with my version of events.
5) The Merchant needs me to file a report before they can resolve the problem. (They are accustomed to this. Businesses, insurance companies, etc. often require that claims for crimes be documented by a police report)

The biggest thing to avoid is --and I mean no offense to anyone here-- confusing the cop. They could argue that you should sue the merchant, or otherwise try to deflect it as a civil matter. (Don't let them: it's *still* a fraud, and they should still take the report, even if recovery of the assets were left to a civil courts. In fact, a police report anbd investigation is often important to civil recovery suits. They know this. Remind them.)

The second big thing to avoid is any hint of guilt in your voice and manner. If you really think there might be a problem with local prudery, get a tape of last night's fawning report on poker on 60 Minutes II - I bet that PartyPoker or some other online poker site advertised on it. That go a long way to legitimizing online poker in their eyes, and lets your sister claim innocence ("I thought it was legal! They even advertise on 60 Minutes!") That's not being sneaky, it's true: most Americans do have a slight puritanical streak about gambling, but we also see legitimacy in its corporate money and open media exposure. That's why we think the TV ads "what happens in Vegas, stays in vegas" are funny, not sleazy.

Be prepared to do the above, but you probably won't need to. Cops aren't dumb. They'll get it.

[daveymck]

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Those that present true facts can generally get the the zoo on their side and can get good results just generally people take some convincing and generally the claims are not true.

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Generally speaking of course.

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Generally.

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OK I have got a secret war game fetish going on, guess who I like to be?

[AngryCola]

A little more like RGP every day...

[beanie]

that is really the only point I was making from the beginning. I don't mind answering questions because people make a lot of baseless allegations. This person found a loophole (fake death) and exploited it. I am unhappy that Party Poker has taken the stance they have and I am using my only outlet. Fact is, there is no recourse for her against Party Poker. We trust these sites with a lot of money, when they act irresponsibly, someone should let them no its not OK to change all of the information on an account with just an e-mail. If you don't believe my account of the facts, I hear ya, it seems unbelievable that they would do this with just that amount of info.

[beanie]

that is really not the issue for me. The issue is that party poker allowed someone to change all of the information on an account with nothing more than e-mail.

[SinCityGuy]

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The issue has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that they allowed someone to change all of the information on an account with nothing more than an e-mail.

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If you had taken reasonable measures to secure your e-mail account, this incident would have never taken place. This is in no way condoning the actions of the thief, but you simply must take measures to protect yourself when dealing with online transactions of any kind.

[beanie]

The simple issue though is that they should not have changed the info and did, and they admit they were wrong in doing so, but will not fix the problem without having my family member admit that she possibly committed a crime.

[beanie]

It was a relatively new account, like 20 days. So no.

[beanie]

the thief used his father apparently, so that is very likely the next approach. Frankly, I thought when Party Poker figured out what they did they would fix it immediately. So yes, now I am likely onto plan B since my family member has no plans to file a police report.