WARNING - Betfair account hacked / fraud

[convoysur-2]

Hi SAM
IM reading your blog,its very interesting ,all of it.
Thanks you for running a blog ,they are invaluable for people trying to make a living from this .
Marc

[spreadbetting]

I agree its a huge problem.

Since reading about hgodden's recent story and with Cheltenham just round the corner i think its important people know my story.

http://samwilson82.blogspot.com/2012/03 ... fraud.html

Seems to be happening all over the place, I saw on the geeks toy chat one of their users was also hacked and they'd dumped his balance on a winning bet to withdraw the cash via another withdrawal method. Dunno if he got to keep the cash.

I've been considering setting up some bot to monitor and alert me to any odd access to my account via monitoring the security tab https://accountservices.betfair.com/acc ... ecurity.do

Be easier if they allowed us access to those details via the API.


Need to think of some way to freeze the account if any odd activity is detected though so if any one has any ideas just post. I think incorrect logins will lock the account but possibly not for anyone already logged in.

[mcfc1981]

why are they placing a bet first?????
why not just withdraw your balance????

[RafterP]

I think if you have decent security measures in place (McAfee, Norton....) then this wouldnt happen?

[Boing]

Harder to withdraw your balance, much easier and more opaque to shuffle the money off in a losing bet.

I also know somebody who has been de-frauded and Betfair just washed their hands of it despite the fact he was a 60% payer and it was just a fraction of his previous months commission. They said it was a case of joy riding, somebody placing bets for 'a laugh' yeah, really funny.

I think Betfair have a problem and they are not letting us know about it. You hear about the odd fraud everywhere, but it seems very widespread on Betfair. They don't seem to take it seriously either.

What annoys me more is they would if it meant they had money at risk. But because they can force the lose onto somebody else, they don't seemed too bothered by it.

[jimrobo]

this is very disconcerting. Especially as it happened to Sam. All of a sudden it got real.

I am definately dropping my balance down after cheltenham

[spreadbetting]

I think if you have decent security measures in place (McAfee, Norton....) then this wouldnt happen?

Most of the people I know who've been hacked are generally pro betfair players they're well aware of security issue and have security in place, strong passwords etc. maybe it'd be understandable if they were all logging in and out in internet cafes but they're not.

I'd be inclined to agree with Boing it does seem to be a reguar occurence at betfair, be interesting to see how many attempts they took to get into accounts or if the logins go straight in.

[superfrank]

I think if you have decent security measures in place (McAfee, Norton....) then this wouldnt happen?

not necessarily true... the security issue could easily be at Betfair's end, or there could be an employee (or ex-employee) at BF or the data centre selling client details. that has happened at plenty of other companies... that's why it's best to have a different password for every online account you have.

[to75ne]

I think if you have decent security measures in place (McAfee, Norton....) then this wouldnt happen?

i wish that was so. i did have (still do), and it happened. i have little doubt that sam wilson and hgodden had to (i would be surprised if they did not).

over the years that i have used betfair, im not that surprised they appear to have problems with security, just another symptom of a badly maintained website and a sod you attitude to their customers.

[Euler]

I think if you have decent security measures in place (McAfee, Norton....) then this wouldnt happen?

I've taken a deeper interest and investigated many of these and there is no pattern. Several of the people affected had very good security and other less so, so the only commonality is Betfair. I think it's a serious enough issue that we should demand action from Betfair. I've seen a few cases that haven't been posted here that are very worrying.

In the meantime I suggest you take the strongest measure possible to protect your account.

I suggest you keep your account balance to a minimum or at least use some of the other tactics out there. Tactics I have seen is to shuffle your money into the Aussie wallet which at least stops betting on most sports. It has also been suggested to park your money on an outside event, say odds of 1000 for Man City to win the premiership, but there is a little more risk with that.

[superfrank]

but if someone has your password then surely they can shift the money back into the main a/c or cancel any bets?

[hgodden]

I think it would be helpful to have a 'closed' forum for things like this where we can discuss security strategies... after all the fraudsters could be what we're saying and work around some suggestions

[jimrobo]

something I stumbled on by accident and I've been doing for a while is this. withdraw all your balance by bank transfer and then deposit it back into your account from your debit card. Now they won't let you withdraw anything apart from back onto your card until that balance has been cleared back onto your card. When that reaches zero repeat the whole process again.

Of course that doesn't stop them putting a huge bet for your entire balance should they get your password

[Iron]

Does anything think that the forum itself might pose a security risk?

Let's say that you're a regular poster here, and it's clear from your posts that you're successful. And let's say that your forum username is the same as your Betfair username.

If a hacker could get access to the server on which the forum is hosted, could they not find out what IP address you're connecting from?

And if they have your username and your IP address, are they not halfway to being able to get into your account?

That's not a rhetorical question, btw - I don't know enough about computer networks to say how useful a tool to hackers someone's IP address is in terms of gaining access to their computer and (say) installing a key logger.

Any thoughts?

Jeff

[LeTiss]

That's a very good question, Jeff

Do any of the victims have forum usernames that are very similar to BF account names?

I'm obviously not asking for a response, but it's just a question that you should be asking yourself