- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
As if there were any doubts. Confession time:
http://www.pocketfives.com/18B87A4F-0F8E-4BB7-A3B8-5729C725E0FA.aspx
Glad I started this thread.. still waiting for Marcela Jarquin (marcela@chipleader.com) to make a comment.
Based on this article at MSN I would say Absolute has discovered what happened and is taking steps to correct the situation and ensure it never happens again:
@Professor 142430 wrote:
Based on this article at MSN I would say Absolute has discovered what happened and is taking steps to correct the situation and ensure it never happens again:
Hi Professor.
Does the above statement mean that you consider the case closed ?
Hope not.
Best regards
Hostrup
@hostrup 142536 wrote:
Hi Professor.
Does the above statement mean that you consider the case closed ?
Hope not.
Best regards
Hostrup
Considering their statement today was complete trash I hope not too.
deborah61;142468 wrote:Less than convincing and it would appear the majority of the online poker community agrees with me.
Another piece of interesting information has arisen too
Written by Thomas Jensen ( Point Spreads News Team)
Monday, 22 October 2007Point-Spreads.com sources in Costa Rica are claiming the Absolute Poker Super-User account scam has been going on for three years and the actual amount that was skimmed from online poker players is estimated at close to $7 million, not the 700k amount that was previously reported. The actual amount is still unknown as an internal audit is underway.
A former employee of Absolute Poker confirmed to Point-Spreads.com that the security department at AP suspected something years ago and we’re told it was just the owners testing out the system and to forget about it.
Our sources have confirmed that Scott Tom was using the Super-User to sit at tables as an “observer” as online poker player PotRipper would join the tournaments and Scott would tell him what cards people have so they can win the tourney and split the money. PotRipper is Alan “AJ” Green, formerly of Nine.com and the now former Operations Director for Absolute Poker. Point-Spreads.com has learned AJ’s real name but has chosen to withhold it at this time. AJ is pictured with Gambling911.com’s sexy reporter Jenny Woo at an expensive dinner in Amsterdam back in 2005.
Where did the $7 million go? On September 3rd, 2007 a small jet plane caught on fire before taking off on the runway at San Jose Juan Santamaria International Airport in Costa Rica. The two passengers on the private jet were Scott Tom and his pregnant wife. His wife was rushed to the hospital to make sure everything was alright with the baby. The plane’s destination was Colombia and the rumored cargo on the plane was $2-3M in cash. Officials at Absolute Poker confirmed to Point-Spreads.com that Tomm was on the jet, however, deny any money was onboard.
While at Nine.com, AJ had a portrait done of himself that hung on his wall over his desk. The photo was a picture of him “American Beauty’ style laying spread out on his futon covered in hundred dollar bills. Were the bills in the photo proceeds from the Absolute Poker Super-User scam? AJ joined the Absolute Poker team approximately one month before Nine.com left Costa Rica for Curacao. While living in Costa Rica, AJ bought a house in Escazu outright with cash and no one questioned how a guy making $50k a year could do that. He invested $100k into Absolute Poker and became a shareholder of the online poker giant, still no on questioned where he came up with the cash. Could it have come from the Super-User scam? We would love to ask AJ that question, but apparently he is on the lam.
At this point, AJ Green has earned the title of the most disliked person in the history of internet gambling? Apparently he was so disliked by his own employees that they blew the whistle on him and the whole scam but the real people that are pissed at him are all of the people pushing for legitimizing the internet gambling industry at its most needed hour. Not to mention, the online poker players he stole from.
I am sick of the different lies AP keep pushing out..and very surprised they are still on CAP.
I would advise everyone who has cash there to withdraw it while you still can. I Is it fair to say that at the moment, any site that advertises AP really doesn’t care about their players.?…
I believe that AP has said they would pay restitution to the players that have been affected by this “superplayer and company”. I also believe considering this is a company that grosses 2 million dollars a day is taking these allegations seriously and will ensure it doesn’t happen again. I am a player at Absolute poker and have been for a few years. I am also an affiliate of AP and have considered pulling their advertising, however I am taking the wait and see approach to see how it is handled by AP over the next while.
I don’t believe that because I am taking the wait and see attitude that I don’t care about the visitors to my site.
@deborah61 142930 wrote:
I am a player at Absolute poker and have been for a few years. I am also an affiliate of AP and have considered pulling their advertising
I bet you play low-med stakes there. “Considered” huh. Very amusing.
they wont be grossing that much $$ for long – they closed their forums – they are about to go under I would imagine because this will DESTROY AP.
Why would you refer your players to a site with no morals, scruples, and one which just cannot tell the truth? they lie and lie and lie..
-we dont have a superuser acct
-okay we do
-someone was trying to prove that the system could be breached.. it was just an experiment
and so on.sigh.
affiliates and players are all trying to get their cash out of ap, some are succeding some are not (from what I read on pocketfives).. good luck to you if you promote AP, I would rather stick my **** in a blender…
If your players knew the whole scandal with AP, I daresay they wouldn’t be too happy at you pushing the product in their faces. It’s not about you the affiliate – it’s about joe shmoe who did (and perhaps will) get Fked over by AP. you wanna play with fire go ahead, I just don’t think you should refer people to hell is all…
Why not take down the AP banners UNTIL the investigation is done (by 3rd parties….)
Just read this article at bill’s blog
here it is in full:
Here is a recent communication that went out from AP to players:
Dear AP Player:
I am the former Grand Chief of the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake and the owner of Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG, which holds a 100% interest in Absolute Poker.
As many of our players are aware, there has been a security breach in our system that allowed unlawful access to player information that resulted in unfair play. I am writing to you today to let you know what we know so far in order to set the record straight, and to assure you of AP’s commitment to player security. I am sure that this letter will not address all of the questions and concerns you may have, nor will it extinguish the heated discussion surrounding this issue. At this point, our intention is to let you know all we can disclose and to assure you of our continued efforts to keep you informed as best we can as the investigations continue.
We deeply regret this situation has occurred. A breach in security in online poker is serious and of great concern to players and the industry worldwide, and this particular situation has been the subject of debate within the poker player community and in the media, giving rise to the creation of several websites and hundreds and hundreds of comments, opinions, and theories of what occurred – some of which are accurate, and some that are not.
Like you, I have not been happy that during the initial stage of our investigation, AP has not been more forthcoming in providing a timely or comprehensive explanation on this matter, giving rise to anger, suspicion, and concern on the part of our valued customers. I hope that our customers can appreciate that this remains an incredibly complex and sensitive issue, and I want to give you my strongest possible assurance that we will be as forthcoming as possible on how this breach occurred and what we are doing to remedy the situation.
What We Know and Actions We Have Taken
AP was notified by a customer that a possible cheating incident occurred during a recent tournament, and in response forwarded players’ hand logs. This disclosure of the hand logs prompted our customers to determine that a more serious security breach had occurred. We immediately launched an internal investigation and also requested a formal audit by Gaming Associates, an acknowledged world-wide expert in audits, interactive gaming tests, and information security.
Based upon our preliminary findings, it appears that the integrity of our poker system was compromised by a high-ranking trusted consultant employed by AP whose position gave him extraordinary access to certain security systems. As has been speculated in several online forums, this consultant devised a sophisticated scheme to manipulate internal systems to access third-party computers and accounts to view hole cards of other customers during play without their knowledge. As this consultant was aware of the details of our fraud detection process, the likelihood that the scheme would be uncovered through our normal procedures was minimized. We consider this security breach to be a horrendous and inexcusable offense.
We will pay for all losses suffered by the affected players as soon as our audit is finished and the amounts are determined. Although we are in the process of attempting to recover all the winnings of this consultant, any unrecovered losses of affected players will be paid by Absolute Poker so that all affected persons will be made whole.
Next Steps
We are still investigating whether the consultant was acting alone or in concert with others, and it appears at this time that all account holders are innocent of collusion and were unaware of any wrong-doing by the consultant, who was immediately terminated. We continue to investigate this matter aggressively, and all of these preliminary findings are subject to the audits currently underway. We have recently uncovered additional accounts used by the consultant that have not been publicly reported. So as to not compromise the investigation, we are not releasing the names of these additional accounts at this time, and will contact these affected customers individually.
The specific allegations of unlawful activity are being investigated both by AP and by the authorized authorities, including the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. We will continue to actively cooperate with these authorities in full compliance with the Regulations Concerning Interactive Gaming. In addition to our own investigation and the audit by Gaming Associates, we have also submitted to an audit by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission.
Please be assured that we have corrected the problem that allowed the system to be unfairly manipulated. We are working furiously to increase the safeguards within our systems. While we are satisfied that our systems are secured, we realize that our security systems must be continuously monitored and enhanced.
Without question, this incident has been unfortunate for all concerned, and we will emerge as a stronger company. I realize it will take some time and much more information for AP to re-earn the trust and confidence of our customers who are in doubt of our commitment to the highest levels of security, privacy and integrity. As we move to address and correct this situation, our valued customers have played a vital role in uncovering this scheme through various online forums and have become an active part of the solution.
With my full sincerity, I thank you, and I promise to keep you updated as we bring this situation to a close.
Sincerely,
Joe Norton
How do you go from “This is literally a geek trying to prove to senior management that they were wrong and he took it too far” to “a high-ranking trusted consultant employed by AP whose position gave him extraordinary access to certain security systems”? Absolute has done nothing but lie, lie, and lie some more on this. Every few days more tidbits come out that confirm that what the poker community has speculated is indeed true.
While it hasn’t been officially stated in Absolute’s email or any sort of press release the word from BRSavage on P5’s is that this “high-ranking trusted consultant” is AJ Green the number two guy at Absolute and the guy running the day to day operations there while numero uno guy Scott Tom is in Panama. This all makes sense since only a guy in charge of investigating himself would have the cahones to approve some of Absolute’s previous statements.
BRSavage also has it from a source at Absolute that AJ Green won’t be named and likely won’t even be prosecuted because he has too much dirt on Absolute and they’re afraid of the shitstorm he could create if they pissed him off. He has been removed from the company and Tom Scott will be removed from a management role for an unspecified period of time. Nat Arem sums it up pretty well:
Okay, the reason they will not send AJ Green to jail (or even name him at this point) is the following…
Think about how much he knows about both the money flow, ownership, other scandals, etc within AP and UB. Lots of people with heavy interests in both of those either don’t want those stories coming out or they don’t want their dirt being told to law enforcement. Basically, he has them by the balls because he has their dirt. Described at the simplest level as blackmail.
Also, I do actually believe that AP, KGC, etc will be a changed organization after this — not necessarily clean, but changed. They would never do anything this blatant again. How they ever get people to believe that they are both clean AND changed will be up to them.
I think Nat hits the nail directly on the head. If you’re basically running a leading online poker site you don’t need to steal money. You’ve likely got an amazing salary and you live in a country (Costa Rica) that has a piss-ant cost of living. The reason you steal money is because you’re an unethical asshat which means this is likely not the first shady thing he has done on behalf of Absolute. That’s certainly not laundry Absolute’s directors want aired.
this is right what everyone suspected from the beginning. AP cheated, and are just plain lying about what happened as they quickly try to cover up their asses and do some damage control…
its funny, but it would be crazy for AP to admit this straight away. how weird would have that been…:flush::flush:
@Professor 142160 wrote:
Trust me if its proven that they allowed a past or present employee to rig games or tournaments we WILL BARBECUE THEIR ASS.
The last thing our industry needs is a scandal like this to make players uncomfortable about playing. We are taking this VERY seriously.
Hi Proffessor.
Isnt it time to barbecue now ?
How come AP is still certified.
