Online casino account hacked

[Matthew6]

Hi

First time posting on this forum so apologies in advance if I've put this in the wrong place.

 

I've joined up to a casino called GrandIvy and deposited £500 winning £11,455. I was advised I could withdraw a maximum of £5000 per week so I went ahead and withdrew £5000 and received a confirmation email to back this up. Now 4 days down the line and I'm still waiting on my withdrawal to go through however I have been contacted by 3 of my credit card providers asking if transactions made were done by me. They were done between 11pm and 5am at which point I was asleep.

I thought instantly maybe my bank details had been passed on and sold so the bank and card providers blocked all my accounts and the transactions which was expected.

I then noticed I had emails welcoming me other casinos and betting sites, a PayPal account was attempted to be set up (mines was cancelled around 3 months ago again due to somebody accessing my PayPal and sending the details to another account in London). I never agreed to anything of the sort and was in bed as I was working at 8am and have a 3 year old so would not be setting up 4 different betting accounts at this time.

 

The time came when I had to go to work, when I got to my van my door had been left ajar and my

'Work'Wallet (only £40 in cash) and my phone had been stole along with some tools & and then the van was left in a bit of a state. I got

A new Samsung s8 on Sunday so the phone left in the van was not being used for the last few days and didn't have a sim card but wasn't cleared.

 

The area is pretty bad for break ins on cars, a few weeks ago my personal car handle has stuck in the open position as somebody had tried the handle so it's not uncommon.

 

I've reported it to the police and they've investigated and gave me a crime reference number but said not to expect much luck in have the items returned which is understandable considering there was a 14hpur period the van was left sitting unwatched and nobody has came forward to give information regarding it.

 

 

Long story short I got an email saying that the withdrawal had been declined. Following all of this carry on I was now very concerned. I attempted to log on to my account and it was froze and stated to contact via live chat. I contacted them and they said my account had been closed the previous night. The funds had been played through and my withdrawals cancelled. All the money was gone but also around £6500 was attempted to be taken from my cards on the same night.

 

I've contacted GrandIvy to see if there is anything they can do, they've asked for the crime reference number and I've advised that there was fraudulent use of my cards at the same time, my wallet and phone was stolen along with tools and other bits and bobs, and that I was targeted by fraud around 2 months ago.

 

They're saying it's gonna take between 7-21 days to investigate which is really annoying but understandable... I'm just wondering if there is anything else i can do?

 

Also what the general opinion is and whether I'll have this money returned?

If it was just my account being hacked I'd say I'd have no chance... but the fact everything else has happened and that the police are involved it may give me a leg to stand on.

 

 

Thanks for the time for reading this, and any information, advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated

 

Cheers

Matt

[LeoDubbed]

First of all, welcome to Askgamblers.

 

To my knowledge, when someone attempt to login and failed several times, the account will be frozen and there's no way anyone could access to your account, or even remotely play the funds. Even so, if the person/hacker managed to access to your account and played the funds, the casino will not refund it. If they really planning to start an investigation regarding this, they will track the IP address and whatnot. If you ask me, the hacker might be someone you know, maybe even a really close one.

[Matthew6]

The phone that was stole however wasn't cleared... so made it easy for them to access my bank accounts, online betting accounts and the rest. The passwords and what not had been saved to the phone so if they've got access to this it won't have locked them out for that reason.

 

Surely the fact the banks, credit card companies and PayPal have all put it down to theft and fraud, and the police are involved ... surely this counts for something?

[pinnit2015]

Sadly not sure if you have any recourse against the casino. The only point would be if the casino had failed to adopt appropriate security measures (ie failed PCI DSS/poor data protection controls). From what you’ve typed this isn’t the case here so only recourse would be if you’re able to find out who did it and launch a civil case etc for losses.

 

Pretty sure they’ll be something in their terms and conditions.

 

Wonder why they played the cash if they couldn’t withdraw to it? If the casino had allowed a withdrawal to their bank then mayb you could go with something but even then their view may be that it up to you to secure accounts and devices.

[pinnit2015]

There is narrative of something similar a few years ago and William Hill did refund the player but there may have been mitigating circumstances to it. Or simply a gesture.

 

Casinos naturally are going to very sceptical about things like this and for good reason. Supplying a police report won’t create a legal obligation to refund though and in locking the account and having no money taken or withdrawn would perhaps suggest the casino have discharged their responsibility.

[LeoDubbed]

The phone that was stole however wasn't cleared... so made it easy for them to access my bank accounts, online betting accounts and the rest. The passwords and what not had been saved to the phone so if they've got access to this it won't have locked them out for that reason.

 

Surely the fact the banks, credit card companies and PayPal have all put it down to theft and fraud, and the police are involved ... surely this counts for something?

This is definitely a lost cause, let this be a lesson for you. Never save any important info in your phone. The safest place to store important info is the brain. Sorry mate but I think you can kiss your money goodbye.

[Matthew6]

That was what I wondering however I've thought about it and I posted the win on social media and think it's maybe an act of jealousy.

 

Also when in the withdrawal section it states where you enter the details of the card to withdraw to 'the card must much the name on this account' so it's maybe put them off, or maybe they've tried... they haven't advised me yet.

 

So basically you think I've got no chance?

[LeoDubbed]

That was what I wondering however I've thought about it and I posted the win on social media and think it's maybe an act of jealousy.

 

Also when in the withdrawal section it states where you enter the details of the card to withdraw to 'the card must much the name on this account' so it's maybe put them off, or maybe they've tried... they haven't advised me yet.

 

So basically you think I've got no chance?

You can try ask the relevant casino department, I guess in this case the banking department, on which name they tried to withdraw, this might brings the light who might have hacked your account. I am afraid the casino wouldn't refund your losses because the account was accessible to everyone who has the info, the issue is on your part and not the casino part but you can always try to get your money back by providing the all evidence you have but there's no guarantee you will receive them.

[Matthew6]

I completely understand... it's just very frustrating but if I was on the other side I would probably have the same opinion as the casinos.

 

I'm awaiting a response from them, and I'm also awaiting response from the police regarding the stolen items so I'll just need to be patient.

 

Even if the were to give me something back it would be great, but again unlikely. If anything I can imagine that I'll probably be given a free bet, but again chances of even that are slim

[pinnit2015]

Be good if someone who knows more about fraudulent transactions/legal standings if proven to be fraudulent , could chip in...

 

Good luck - if if was a few other casino brands other than the very prescription caddell/white hat I’d say you could appeal to their more human side!

 

Let us know what happens.

 

On a side note-did someone or could someone have known that you had this cash sitting? And... play with places that don’t have 24 to 48 hr pending periods and/or no lock function

[ValDes]

Hi there @Matthew6 and welcome to AskGamblers. 

 

I believe you did the best giving the circumstances and namely, reported the issue to the police. Now what you could do to help yourself is to contact the casino in question and request a complete report of your account activity containing crucial data such as dates, statuses and IP addresses associated with each and every login/off and payment transaction you have done there. Once you got the information report it to the police and let them do their job. 

 

From my experience dealing with over a dozen similar AGCCS cases over the last couple of years you'll be surprised to know they could actually help you a lot getting back what's rightfully yours. 

 

Good luck and keep us updated.  

[cocopop3011]

Not really much left for me to say that hasn't already been said. Our police force don't have the best track record when it comes these crimes and catching the scum that do it! Whereabouts in the UK are you from?

[Matthew6]

They could have known quite easily that the money was awaiting withdrawal... when I requested it I received a message and an email advising that the money was being processed and that it would take 3-5 days, however that it could be cancelled if I went to the withdraw section in my account.

 

I'm just hoping the investigation they do I thorough enough and will prove that it wasn't me that done this however I can't help but think that because it's all on their terms and out of my hands that it's gonna be difficult for me to get anything from them.

 

I know if they do it correctly it will come back in my favour however I've been in a similar position before with casinos claiming I accepted a bonus when it wasn't the case and wouldn't allow me to withdraw my money and unfortunately didn't get anywhere with them. It's really just your word against theirs.

 

 

I guess it's just a waiting game now to see what they come back with.... but reluctantly in my head I've wrote the money off. Hard to swallow as it really was a lot of money to me, however I didn't have it in the first place.

 

If I get the money back great, if not I'll have to look into possible options to go further with it.

 

And I'm from Scotland.

 

 

Thanks

[pinnit2015]

They could have known quite easily that the money was awaiting withdrawal... when I requested it I received a message and an email advising that the money was being processed and that it would take 3-5 days, however that it could be cancelled if I went to the withdraw section in my account.

 

I'm just hoping the investigation they do I thorough enough and will prove that it wasn't me that done this however I can't help but think that because it's all on their terms and out of my hands that it's gonna be difficult for me to get anything from them.

 

I know if they do it correctly it will come back in my favour however I've been in a similar position before with casinos claiming I accepted a bonus when it wasn't the case and wouldn't allow me to withdraw my money and unfortunately didn't get anywhere with them. It's really just your word against theirs.

 

 

I guess it's just a waiting game now to see what they come back with.... but reluctantly in my head I've wrote the money off. Hard to swallow as it really was a lot of money to me, however I didn't have it in the first place.

 

If I get the money back great, if not I'll have to look into possible options to go further with it.

 

And I'm from Scotland.

 

 

Thanks

Unless you can prove the casino in question has been negligent I'm afraid you probably won't be able to go further with it - sorry to be harsh, but you were the one who left the phone in the car etc so hard to see how the casino can be at fault. If the casino was hacked then that may be a different story.

 

There'll be readers here, and i'll be honest, who may think that this is case of someone who's tilted, played it back themselves and is now trying to get their cash back. 11k is a lot of cash but it's not worth getting dragged into possible actions against yourself by being a bit liberal with the chains of events - the casino will look at play records, even your favourite games to see any similarities etc so don't go down that route :-)

 

Regardless, good luck 

 

Police Scotland may be a busy looking for their new Chief Constable after Gormley chucked it :-)

[LeoDubbed]

Unless you can prove the casino in question has been negligent I'm afraid you probably won't be able to go further with it - sorry to be harsh, but you were the one who left the phone in the car etc so hard to see how the casino can be at fault. If the casino was hacked then that may be a different story.

 

There'll be readers here, and i'll be honest, who may think that this is case of someone who's tilted, played it back themselves and is now trying to get their cash back. 11k is a lot of cash but it's not worth getting dragged into possible actions against yourself by being a bit liberal with the chains of events - the casino will look at play records, even your favourite games to see any similarities etc so don't go down that route :-)

 

Regardless, good luck 

 

Police Scotland may be a busy looking for their new Chief Constable after Gormley chucked it :-)

I couldn't agree more, the issue remains on his end, the casino did nothing wrong, it is your own responsibility to take care of your own stuff. Like I said, I think this is a lost cause. At first I thought that it was a lame excuse of trying to take losses back, too many coincidences in my opinion but hey, I'm not Sherlock Holmes and we should never judge a book by its cover. Strange things happen all the time and the player's issue might be real.

[manson]

I'm sorry for what had happened.  Sad to say but even with police reports, There's almost not even a slim chance that the casino will refund the money... The thing is, all of that info., items are your sole responsibility. Nobody would want that to happen to anyone but I'm afraid they wouldn't be willing to shell out the funds that got out of your account. "Technically" the security measures that they do are mostly to counteract/mitigate fraud against them. If that person used the same phone for accessing your accts. it would appear as the same IP/Device hence, it won't be flagged as "Suspicious" apart from other factors, it is a strong evidence to deem the withdrawal  "Legit".

The logic is, they can't just take your words for it even if you have a police report. They might think that it's not impossible to file a Police report, tell them stuff were stolen including your phone which has sensitive info. , then made the withdrawal themselves... 'It's called "Friendly Fraud" which is very similar to "Chargeback Fraud"