Sportsbook.com?
- Thread starter Tearful
- Start date
i've never had 1 problem with this book for over 5-6 years. Always been paid without any problems. Just think they may be having issues tonight.
THE NEWS WIRES
1/26/2006
Sportingbet North America - Fraud, Security Breach or Inside Job?
Sportingbet PLC's North American operations, Sportsbook.com being their flagship, consolidated the non enviable reputation of the highest number of players complaints industry wide. In more recent times players disputes escalated from winnings confiscations to mind blowing hack jobs which lead to the loss of tens of thousands dollars of players' hard earned money.
On November 21st 2005 TheOffshoreWire received this frightening report from a player:
"I have ongoing dispute with Superbook.com....which I believe is part of the Sportsbook.com umbrella. I noticed from reading the Prescription.com you are filing a complaint with the London Stock Exchange, so I wanted to forward my info for your review. I also referred the matter to OSGA a week ago, and Neteller is also conducting an investigation into this matter.
I'll be as brief as possible, and if you want more information I'll be happy to send everything I have, included copies of all correspondence I've had since trouble began with my account.
On Monday, November 7th, I logged into my Superbook account and balance was $30,823. Might seem excessive to you, but please note that I have had an account with them for about 3 or 4 years and have never had a problem getting paid. This is a normal balance for me, as I play tons of props during football season and sides for a dime, so it's not unusual for me to have the entire 30k pending on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, since they are rather slow at grading.
After checking my balance on the 7th, I processed a withdrawal in the amount of 4,870, which should have left me $25,953. Later that day, I placed wagers and lost, according to my notes, $770. This should have left with a balance of $25,183. When I logged into my account on Tuesday I noticed my balance was only $3500. I immediately contacted them and was told my a customer service rep that I lost $14,000 in the casino and had withdrawn the rest. Please note that I currently have 20 accounts with sportsbooks on the Internet, and if you check with each one they will tell you that I have never visited their casino. In fact, the last five years I have been gaming on the Internet I have never visited an on-line casino. Aside from money they claim I lost in the casino, the remainder was withdrawn from Neteller, yet it appears that these funds were sent to a Neteller account I know nothing about. Currently Zach is investigating this incident at Neteller. I was dealing with a guy named Keith at Superbook, who was my VIP host. Keith was no help at all, and despite my being out 30k, it didn't appear to be enough to spark his interest, saying he was closing the matter and that it was my responsibility to protect my log-in details, seeming to indicate that everything was my fault. He did agree that it was not me who lost money in the casino, but my fault since I didn't protect my log-in info. According to Zach at Neteller, there is another customer who he is working with that has also had money removed from his account from this Sportsbook.
1/26/2006
Sportingbet North America - Fraud, Security Breach or Inside Job?
Sportingbet PLC's North American operations, Sportsbook.com being their flagship, consolidated the non enviable reputation of the highest number of players complaints industry wide. In more recent times players disputes escalated from winnings confiscations to mind blowing hack jobs which lead to the loss of tens of thousands dollars of players' hard earned money.
On November 21st 2005 TheOffshoreWire received this frightening report from a player:
"I have ongoing dispute with Superbook.com....which I believe is part of the Sportsbook.com umbrella. I noticed from reading the Prescription.com you are filing a complaint with the London Stock Exchange, so I wanted to forward my info for your review. I also referred the matter to OSGA a week ago, and Neteller is also conducting an investigation into this matter.
I'll be as brief as possible, and if you want more information I'll be happy to send everything I have, included copies of all correspondence I've had since trouble began with my account.
On Monday, November 7th, I logged into my Superbook account and balance was $30,823. Might seem excessive to you, but please note that I have had an account with them for about 3 or 4 years and have never had a problem getting paid. This is a normal balance for me, as I play tons of props during football season and sides for a dime, so it's not unusual for me to have the entire 30k pending on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, since they are rather slow at grading.
After checking my balance on the 7th, I processed a withdrawal in the amount of 4,870, which should have left me $25,953. Later that day, I placed wagers and lost, according to my notes, $770. This should have left with a balance of $25,183. When I logged into my account on Tuesday I noticed my balance was only $3500. I immediately contacted them and was told my a customer service rep that I lost $14,000 in the casino and had withdrawn the rest. Please note that I currently have 20 accounts with sportsbooks on the Internet, and if you check with each one they will tell you that I have never visited their casino. In fact, the last five years I have been gaming on the Internet I have never visited an on-line casino. Aside from money they claim I lost in the casino, the remainder was withdrawn from Neteller, yet it appears that these funds were sent to a Neteller account I know nothing about. Currently Zach is investigating this incident at Neteller. I was dealing with a guy named Keith at Superbook, who was my VIP host. Keith was no help at all, and despite my being out 30k, it didn't appear to be enough to spark his interest, saying he was closing the matter and that it was my responsibility to protect my log-in details, seeming to indicate that everything was my fault. He did agree that it was not me who lost money in the casino, but my fault since I didn't protect my log-in info. According to Zach at Neteller, there is another customer who he is working with that has also had money removed from his account from this Sportsbook.
keep reading
In summary, my balance of 30,000 is now at $2. As I mentioned above, I did have $3500 remaining when I checked my balance on November 8th. After all that had occurred, I requested that Keith withdrawal that amount and send it to my home address, but I was told that withdrawals had to be done on-line. So I processed a withdrawal for $3498, leaving $2 in there so I could be sure that it was, in fact, my withdrawal that was being processed in the system. Amazingly, this money was somehow diverted also, even though I received on-line confirmation that the check would be sent to my home.
We immediately contacted Sportsbook.com on behalf of the player. The book's head of security candidly admitted the irregularities reported by the player, acknowledged that a different (and totally unrelated) IP address accessed the player's account however also stated: "In this case the account was accessed with his user name and password. The integrity of this is the responsibility of the member as stated in the rules. In addition a neteller account was created with his personal information. This appears to be a fraudulent Neteller account although Neteller will not provide verification of the details in how the account was created nor where they sent the funds to."
The player recently approached TOW for an update:
"I last wrote to you in late November regarding the disappearance of funds from my Superbook.com account. To update you, my account had over $30,000 in it when suddenly funds began to disappear. I was paid $3500, which was sent to my Neteller account in November, but the remaining $26,538 still remains unaccounted for.
It seems there has been little progress since the last time I wrote you. Keith from Superbook wrote me on December 8th and requested my phone number and a good time to call me. I provided my phone number to him for the fifth time or so and I wrote that he could call me anytime. Keith never called. He did write to me again on December 12th and said they were still investigating the incident and he would get back to me as soon as he was updated.
It's now been about 5 weeks since I last heard from him which is why I am writing to you. Please let me know if you have heard anything about my case in recent weeks. I feel that with the amount of money involved I have been extremely patient, and I obviously would like very much to get tot he bottom of this and recoup the money the funds that were removed from my account."
From our findings it is unclear if information in the player's profile was changed using the account's login and password. A number of Sportsbook.com players report that they may access their account information, place wagers and make changes via the phone without the book's clerks prompting their password but simply asking them their account number. What is known is that Sportsbook.com processed Neteller withdrawals in favor of a different account then the one they originally had on file for the player. The book, renowned to delay payouts due to "internal audits", surprisingly processed those requests in a very timely fashion.
TOW recently ran a test on behalf of a player and managed to access the player's info via phone by giving the punter's account number and name only. However we were asked the password before confirming a wager we were placing on the player's behalf.
What seemed to be an isolated case turned into a pattern on November 30th 2005 when another player filed this complaint:
Given its bizarre nature, I was originally unsure as to whether or not to file this complaint, but in light of the recent developments on your website regarding Sportingbet PLC, I simply had to. I have had an active account with sportsbook.com and sportsbetting.com for about 3 months. In that time, between the two accounts, I had accumulated approximately $15,000 in profits. On the morning of November 3rd, I signed on and saw that my balance for both accounts was $0. I immediately checked my wager and transaction history and saw no activity to explain the deduction. When I called Sportsbook.com's customer service, I was told that I had lost the money at their online casino. They claimed that the money in my sportsbook.com account, and the money in my sportsbetting.com account, had been transferred to the online casino at around 1:40 am that morning, and that in a matter of roughly 30 minutes, every last penny of my winnings and initial deposit ($17,000.00 in total) had been risked and lost. I had never used the online casino, nor had I ever even downloaded their software, so I demanded a log and hand history of the casino wagers placed. After nearly 2 weeks of delays, they complied, and sent me a hand history that would indicate that my account was sabotaged. Large wagers (sometimes of multiple thousands) had been placed on virtual horse races, virtual high lo, virtual blackjack, and Caribbean poker. At the time of this alleged incident, I was asleep. Nobody else has my account passwords. I have NEVER used their casino.
I originally tried to accept that this was somehow the work of a hacker, but even then I cannot possibly understand the motives. There was no attempt made to transfer money out of my account, only ridiculous bet after ridiculous bet made in the span of 30 minutes, wiping out all of my funds. Sportsbook.com should know that I did not do this. I have been placing sports bets regularly for 3 months (and doing so with a high degree of success). There is obviously and absolutely NO reason why I would have played at their online casino and destroyed my account. After reading your website, I am more prepared to make the bold accusation that sportsbook.com was responsible. I have spent considerable time on the phone with their managers, and they all childishly tell me the same thing: "There is nothing we can do." I am at a complete loss.
Also in this second case the book's head of security reported that a different IP address accessed the player's account. However the book has taken no further action and the faith of vanished funds remains in a limbo.
While Sportsbook.com management denies responsibility and maintains that "The integrity of this is the responsibility of the member as stated in the rules" TOW was recently made aware that two well known "databases sellers" claim being able to provide Sportsbook.com databases complete of players account numbers, full names, logins and passwords. We obviously declined the offer to purchase said data.
Sportsbook.com has a rather high personnel turnover and pays its clerks the lowest wages in the industry. It is safe to assume that some clerks may wish to "round up" their salaries by selling sensitive data. Eventually, given our findings on the databases black market, the book's internal security is unable to protect its customers information from being dispersed on the black market.
In such scenario, and with the book's management unwilling to bear responsibility of proven security breaches, we recommend punters, specially the ones holding larger balances, not to take the chance of finding themselves having to share the nightmare described in the above mentioned cases. Thankfully the industry offers a wide selection of alternative safe sports books where account holders are very unlikely to have their accounts hacked and hear the book's management tell them "Too bad for you, nothing we can do about it. Eat your loss and move on".
In summary, my balance of 30,000 is now at $2. As I mentioned above, I did have $3500 remaining when I checked my balance on November 8th. After all that had occurred, I requested that Keith withdrawal that amount and send it to my home address, but I was told that withdrawals had to be done on-line. So I processed a withdrawal for $3498, leaving $2 in there so I could be sure that it was, in fact, my withdrawal that was being processed in the system. Amazingly, this money was somehow diverted also, even though I received on-line confirmation that the check would be sent to my home.
We immediately contacted Sportsbook.com on behalf of the player. The book's head of security candidly admitted the irregularities reported by the player, acknowledged that a different (and totally unrelated) IP address accessed the player's account however also stated: "In this case the account was accessed with his user name and password. The integrity of this is the responsibility of the member as stated in the rules. In addition a neteller account was created with his personal information. This appears to be a fraudulent Neteller account although Neteller will not provide verification of the details in how the account was created nor where they sent the funds to."
The player recently approached TOW for an update:
"I last wrote to you in late November regarding the disappearance of funds from my Superbook.com account. To update you, my account had over $30,000 in it when suddenly funds began to disappear. I was paid $3500, which was sent to my Neteller account in November, but the remaining $26,538 still remains unaccounted for.
It seems there has been little progress since the last time I wrote you. Keith from Superbook wrote me on December 8th and requested my phone number and a good time to call me. I provided my phone number to him for the fifth time or so and I wrote that he could call me anytime. Keith never called. He did write to me again on December 12th and said they were still investigating the incident and he would get back to me as soon as he was updated.
It's now been about 5 weeks since I last heard from him which is why I am writing to you. Please let me know if you have heard anything about my case in recent weeks. I feel that with the amount of money involved I have been extremely patient, and I obviously would like very much to get tot he bottom of this and recoup the money the funds that were removed from my account."
From our findings it is unclear if information in the player's profile was changed using the account's login and password. A number of Sportsbook.com players report that they may access their account information, place wagers and make changes via the phone without the book's clerks prompting their password but simply asking them their account number. What is known is that Sportsbook.com processed Neteller withdrawals in favor of a different account then the one they originally had on file for the player. The book, renowned to delay payouts due to "internal audits", surprisingly processed those requests in a very timely fashion.
TOW recently ran a test on behalf of a player and managed to access the player's info via phone by giving the punter's account number and name only. However we were asked the password before confirming a wager we were placing on the player's behalf.
What seemed to be an isolated case turned into a pattern on November 30th 2005 when another player filed this complaint:
Given its bizarre nature, I was originally unsure as to whether or not to file this complaint, but in light of the recent developments on your website regarding Sportingbet PLC, I simply had to. I have had an active account with sportsbook.com and sportsbetting.com for about 3 months. In that time, between the two accounts, I had accumulated approximately $15,000 in profits. On the morning of November 3rd, I signed on and saw that my balance for both accounts was $0. I immediately checked my wager and transaction history and saw no activity to explain the deduction. When I called Sportsbook.com's customer service, I was told that I had lost the money at their online casino. They claimed that the money in my sportsbook.com account, and the money in my sportsbetting.com account, had been transferred to the online casino at around 1:40 am that morning, and that in a matter of roughly 30 minutes, every last penny of my winnings and initial deposit ($17,000.00 in total) had been risked and lost. I had never used the online casino, nor had I ever even downloaded their software, so I demanded a log and hand history of the casino wagers placed. After nearly 2 weeks of delays, they complied, and sent me a hand history that would indicate that my account was sabotaged. Large wagers (sometimes of multiple thousands) had been placed on virtual horse races, virtual high lo, virtual blackjack, and Caribbean poker. At the time of this alleged incident, I was asleep. Nobody else has my account passwords. I have NEVER used their casino.
I originally tried to accept that this was somehow the work of a hacker, but even then I cannot possibly understand the motives. There was no attempt made to transfer money out of my account, only ridiculous bet after ridiculous bet made in the span of 30 minutes, wiping out all of my funds. Sportsbook.com should know that I did not do this. I have been placing sports bets regularly for 3 months (and doing so with a high degree of success). There is obviously and absolutely NO reason why I would have played at their online casino and destroyed my account. After reading your website, I am more prepared to make the bold accusation that sportsbook.com was responsible. I have spent considerable time on the phone with their managers, and they all childishly tell me the same thing: "There is nothing we can do." I am at a complete loss.
Also in this second case the book's head of security reported that a different IP address accessed the player's account. However the book has taken no further action and the faith of vanished funds remains in a limbo.
While Sportsbook.com management denies responsibility and maintains that "The integrity of this is the responsibility of the member as stated in the rules" TOW was recently made aware that two well known "databases sellers" claim being able to provide Sportsbook.com databases complete of players account numbers, full names, logins and passwords. We obviously declined the offer to purchase said data.
Sportsbook.com has a rather high personnel turnover and pays its clerks the lowest wages in the industry. It is safe to assume that some clerks may wish to "round up" their salaries by selling sensitive data. Eventually, given our findings on the databases black market, the book's internal security is unable to protect its customers information from being dispersed on the black market.
In such scenario, and with the book's management unwilling to bear responsibility of proven security breaches, we recommend punters, specially the ones holding larger balances, not to take the chance of finding themselves having to share the nightmare described in the above mentioned cases. Thankfully the industry offers a wide selection of alternative safe sports books where account holders are very unlikely to have their accounts hacked and hear the book's management tell them "Too bad for you, nothing we can do about it. Eat your loss and move on".
