WTF? Possible PartyPoker Scam...

[Aequitas58]

... not initiated by the fine people at PP of course. Here's the email I just received:

Dear Aequitas58,

Greetings from PartyPoker.com.

Click below

to reset your password using our secure server.

Once you have returned to PartyPoker.com, we will give instructions for resetting your password.



Thank you for visiting PartyPoker.com!

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our Customer Care Department is open 24/7 and we look forward to serving you.

Sincerely Yours,
Lucy Jones
Customer Care Manager
Party Poker

+1 (800) 852-4719 (Toll Free from US/CAN)
+350 50509 (International Charges Apply)

Two things make this a little bit sketchy:
1. Party has never asked for my password before, and it seems a little odd that they are requesting "password assistance."
2. Whenever I get an email from Party, the sender's name is usually something along the lines of "Rajesh" or "Nadir" or some other clearly-Indian name. Lucy Jones? I don't think so.

Anyone else get this email?

[GeoffM]

It's possible someone tried to bust into your account. In any event, I would call the number on their homepage, not the number on the email.

[Talking Poker]

I received 22 (yes, TWENTY TWO) of these emails this morning. I took it to mean someone was trying to hack their way into my account. I contacted Party and got pretty much exactly the response I was expecting:

-----
Thank you for contacting us.

With reference to your email sent to us, we would like to inform you that, you have received these Password Assistance Mailers to your email address, as it was requested from your end. And it is learnt that, you have not requested personally on your behalf. However, no one will be able to access your account, as this mail will be sent to your email address and no one else has an access to your email address.

And please be asssured that, your information is safe and secured with us, and also we request you to please change your password and also please 'uncheck' the option 'Remember my account/screen name and password' if it already marked check in the Registered player login window.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Care Department at any time. We are here 24/7 to assist you via email.

Thank you for choosing us as your online gaming site!

Maria
Poker Customer Care
-----

I wonder how many other people have been affected by this. Is it a worldwide thing, or is it more than just coincidence that this happened to both you and I?

[ChipFish]

I have received 56 of the same e-mail...
I yelled at the guy on the phone.
He says it was from my ISP.
I said that was interesting since their was no connection at the time becuase I was not even home.

He then asked me if I did it and forgot?
I told him where he could stick his computer.

I imagine it is a user or guest on this message board.
I have not heard about this on any other board (yet).
Whoever it is, is not that bright.
They tried 51 times in 6 minutes the first time.
They will be in for a surprise when they discover the amount of money in my
Party account. LOL.

[Aequitas58]

What the fuck is wrong with people? First DCopper, now this.

[New Guy]

Mabey cause im broke.I cant take the play on these stupid sites.I really am starting to hate on-line live money play.I love the tounies but the cash play I think im leaving to the card clubs!!!

[omahilo]

I havent had any either... then again I have like 70 cents in my party account currently.

[GeoffM]

LMAO! That is interesting and I was thinking the same thing until I read this. I assume that means $0 Chip. I haven't a dime in Party either, cashed out a neat $260 profit from 1.5 weeks of play this weekend. Funny, nobody tried to break into my account, mind you my screenname is different from on this site.

[Talking Poker]

I was a little surprised because I don't think my Party name is actually posted anywhere on this site (I usually change it to "Talking Poker" when I post HHs), and it's different than the name I used at Stars for the tourney. Only a handful of people here have railbirded me, so it's not likely some random visitor. If it is someone from this forum, it's got to be a regular...

Quite the mystery.......

I wonder if it's BrianSwa - He should be unbanned by now, but hasn't actually posted. Shocking.

[GeoffM]

I'm curious, since someone is trying to break into your account, I wonder if Party would be legally allowed to give you an IP address for the person. Then you'd be able to trace thru this site and determine who it is (if someone off this board), and after that, who knows what next?

Any legal analysts on this board care to give your three cents?

[ChipFish]

If you can get Party Support to do this for you You truely are a GOD.

They said it was from my ISP, the same one I was currently logged in from.
I kindly told him where he could shove his keyboard.

[Tuff Luck]

^Keep in mind that even if you did get the ip, the user could be using a proxy for their browser which means it'll show up as a different ip when they post here. Doubt they're smart enough to think of that, but who knows...

[greenbuckets]

I did not receive an email from partypoker as a few of you have but recently I received an email from Earthlink requesting my payment information. The Customer Service Manager's name was Lucy Jones! I called Earthlink and they verified it was a scam. Probably the same clowns just trying other sites. At leas they could change the name.

[2Tone]

This seems to be exclusive to our forum, as there's no mention of it on RGP. Also, the three people it did happen to -- Lou, Chip and TP -- are all pretty high profile around here. Perhaps it's another milestone -- you aren't a real poker community until a disgruntled member tries to hack it’s members accounts.

Meanwhile, my favorite part of all of this was Party’s suggest to Chip that he might have requested password assistance 56 times, and then promptly forgotten that he had done so.

[ChipFish]

All of my passwords are between 12-18 characters (with a random mix of letters and numbers) Add to that the sites that allow characters e.g."&" and you have a probability of cracking my password in this lifetime of zero. If anyone hacks that, All the power to them.

[Aequitas58]

I don't know if I'd be considered a "legal analyst" but I will be graduating from law school in 2 1/2 months. With that said, I don't know anything about international laws especially when they deal w/ cybercrimes. In this situation, someone trying to illegally gain access to someone else's private account certainly qualifies as a cybercrime.

This is less a question of what laws apply than how much PartyPoker will police these activities. Our laws don't apply simply because the company is offshore, and therefore we are out of US jurisdiction.

One would think that Party would protect its "regulars," as I suspect Chip, TP, and myself are. But, sadly, it doesn't seem like they give a shit. This isn't the first time I've gotten something like this via email.

Within the past week, I've gotten password requests for my PayPal account, Neteller, and Ebay. What the fuck.

[ChipFish]

I believe the FBI is interested in cyber crimes in "any" jurisdiction....
That is the beauty of "Cyber" space... there are no boundries... So, the U.S. is seeking to police what it can, Also Interpol.

[Talking Poker]

These are completely different scams. What these are is people creating fake websites and trying to get you to go there and enter your sensitive information, thinking you are entering it in the actual site. Once you do, they have your info and can get into your account and do whatever they please. Some of these things look so realistic, I can't believe more people (non computer people anyway) don't fall for them.

What happened to us last night was some schmuck trying to get into our Party accounts. He clicked on "Forgot Password" on the login screen, and then typed our screen names (many, many times). This sent us a confirmation email with instructions on how to complete resetting our password (this is the email you posted).

BTW... what time did you guys get these emails? Mine were just before 4 AM ET... 3:56 and 3:57 AM.

[ChipFish]

Same time last night... (He tried me first)...
Also the previous afternoon.

I already have a very good idea of who it is.

[Aequitas58]

Just about the same time for me... that's unbelievable. Chip, send me a PM and tell me what you're thinkin.

[ChipFish]

OK... I did... What do you think?

[Aequitas58]

Check your PMs.

[Talking Poker]

I want to know... Throw me into the loop, will ya?

Better yet, let's move this to email so all three of us can take part - poker at talkingpoker.com

Apparently, it was just the three of us.... at least no one else has come forward yet...

[Talking Poker]

BTW.... without even reading your theories, I have a pretty solid guess myself. A VERY solid guess, in fact.

[ChipFish]

I gotta get to bed... Lou will fill you in with my thoughts...
Stupid day-shifts.