Stars players using Sharkscope BEWARE

[justdonkme]

I logged into stars this afternoon, then opened up Sharkscope, and immediately received a message from support stating they detected me using me sharkscope.com and to check my email where I found this message.


Hello,

It has come to our attention at PokerStars that you are accessing a prohibited
third party website known as "SharkScope.com" during your game play.

Perhaps you were unaware that the use of SharkScope was against the rules, but
use of this software under any circumstances is against our terms of service.
Those terms of service are located here:



Among them are these terms:

5.4. EXTERNAL PLAYER ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS (EPA). PokerStars
prohibits those External Player Assistance Programs ("EPA
Programs") which are designed to provide an "Unfair Advantage"
to players. PokerStars defines "External" to mean computer
software...and non-software-based databases or profiles (e.g.
web sites and subscription services). PokerStars defines
an "Unfair Advantage" as any instance in which a User
accesses or compiles information on other players beyond
that which the User has personally observed through the
User's own game play. We encourage you to read our
Prohibited Online Software FAQ at:



As SharkScope provides statistics based upon a large database of hands in which
you did not play, it is considered to be in violation of this policy.

We are aware that many who receive this alert do not subscribe to SharkScope,
but do use the 5 free daily lookups to check their own stats. We do not
distinguish between such uses, however, and even this use of SharkScope is
prohibited.

For a brief transition period, we will only be issuing this alert. We ask that
you stop using SharkScope immediately. On November 15, we will begin closing
the accounts of players found to be using SharkScope despite having received and
acknowledged a warning.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter, and for helping us to keep
PokerStars' games a fair and level playing field for all players.

Best Regards,

PokerStars Game Security


Whoa... Now the question I have is, can you access sharkscope WITHOUT being logged into stars or will they know still? I really don't want my account closed due to a visit to sharkscope. Has anyone else seen this warning yet or did it just start today?

[jillaj]

Stars just officially banned it in the last couple of days. Stars can't tell what you have open if the client isn't open.

[Nikita]

This really sucks. I use Sharkscope all the time since I mainly play SNGs. I also like to keep track of my own stats on there.

[Talking Poker]

Interesting.

You can still use it (for tracking purposes or whatever) when you don't have Stars open, and you could always use it on another computer like a laptop while you play.

I don't really play on Stars much, but I do play on FT and do use it there, so hopefully FT doesn't follow suit here.

[JDMcNugent7]

how the hell can they tell what websites ur on while ur playing?

that shouldnt be allowed

[de-coder]

I expect that the PS software puts a hook into IE to detect what sites it's viewing - use Firefox, it appears to be unaffected.

I played at a table and used sharkscope to check on a few players (just the free version I don't subscribe) with Firefox and didn't receive any emails or warnings.

You guys and your IE...

[Kurn]

Sharkscope has been a banned program on 'Stars for at least the past year.