I got Punk'd.

[bunny]

If it is a member of this forum, I think we have a right to know who it is. We might all be in danger of this type of scam.

I also think he/she should be banned immediately.

[melioris]

Aeq, I strongly suggest you go after this individual to the fullest extent of your capabilities. By aggressively pursuing prosecution of this individual you ensure that this individual does not repeat this crime, particularly against a more helpless victim that he/she can really hurt financially.

Also, this is part of the problem with the nebulous legal nature of online poker. But you still have the NETELLER fraud to hit this person with, even if you don’t want to get into the pokerstars part of the crimes this person committed against you.

Revealing the identity of this person is of minor importance. This will come out in good time. Taking steps to ensure the mechanism this person exploited is no longer in place is of far more importance.

You’re a young lawyer, I am sure you have read some of the classics. WWJCD? (What would Julius Caesar do?) Get Roman on their ass.

[bunny]

I still don't understand how he got into your neteller account. Was this person a friend of yours, that you met on here? Is that it. Did you ever let him play on your account? Did he hijack your computer or just guess your Yahoo password and got into your Yahoo account where all your passwords were stored?

Glad you caught the s.o.b.

If I were you though, I'd report him. He might be scamming other people and it's up to you, since you know who it is, to stop him.

edit: I tried posting this right after my last post, but didn't seem to work. But I fully agree with Mel on this one. You can't just think of your case, Aeq. You have to think of all the other people he might have done this to or will do. You can't pardon him, by letting him go free after he compensates you for your loss. It's not right.

[Aequitas58]

At this juncture, I don't think you have a right to know who it is.

[badblood44]

I'd like to reiterate bunny's question about how the Neteller access was compromised.

Any information you can share about how the account's were breached would most certainly be valuable to everyone here.

[Aequitas58]

Yahoo was my Neteller email account. My Neteller account details were saved in an email, which was saved in my inbox.

[GeoffM]

Nobody has a right to know. It's your business. Just ensure the money is given back. This is absolutely crazy though. I'm glad you were able to get the money back Lou. This has made me re-think my relatively generic passwords for all of my email, poker and work related.

Edit to add: I have a pretty good idea who it is but will hold judgment.

[bunny]

Was it random that you were the "chosen one" Aeq? Or was he gunning for you because you pissed him off?

[Talking Poker]

Does it matter?

As far as this forum is concerned, I'm respecting Lou's request to take no action for the time being, for obvious reasons.

The lesson to be learned here is that everyone should be more careful - always. Keep your account info and passwords secure and do not share them with anyone, ESPECIALLY electronically. As pshabi realized, if the person you share them with doesn't keep that info secure, you could be screwed.

Also, as for the Yahoo account which was the open window to this whole mess, clearly that is not very secure if all it takes to get in is to know someone's hometown and some other basic information. So I wouldn't consider ANY webmail program secure. If you download your email to your PC, via Outlook/Eudora/whatever, that's much more secure than leaving sensitive information online in a web based account.