Online Poker Fraud: 7 Popular Methods and How to Prevent Them

Poker is not only entertainment but also an opportunity to win some cash. Unfortunately, there are people who are absolutely not interested in the fun part but seek to make money in any way. So we have to deal with such a phenomenon as online poker fraud. In this article, we are to figure out different kinds of fraud and ways to prevent them.

What Is Online Poker Fraud?

Online poker fraud refers to any criminal act in which the perpetrator aims to deceive or defraud gambling operators or players. Criminals who participate in poker fraud usually want to get money or enjoy other benefits, such as free bonus funds, using illegal means. The most common illegal activities in the gambling world include multi-accounting, bonus abuse, colluding, hacking, carding, blackmailing, and the use of poker bots.

iGaming operators are especially exposed to fraudulent activities and online poker scams due to the nature of their business. The internet is everyone’s playground, providing limitless opportunities for hackers and other users with malicious intentions to cheat and steal money from operators. Even players can become victims of different tactics and schemes criminals use for financial gain. That is why gambling authorities and governments create and enforce laws to protect poker site operators and their customers from fraudulent acts. The good news is that it is possible to prevent poker fraud once you understand what it entails.

Why Is It Important 

At first sight, online poker operators could ignore cheating because they get their rake anyway. But this approach causes a great reputational loss. Playing with a cheater brings no pleasure, despite losing money.

However, some kinds of fraud cause money loss to an operator directly. By 2020, the cost of global cybercrime reached over $1 trillion. The growth in popularity of online poker during the pandemic period also drew the attention of scammers to it. According to the Q1 2020 Fraud and Abuse Report by Arkose Labs, the overall attack level in the online gaming industry grew by 30%.

So any online poker operator has to counteract fraudulent activity to save its money and reputation.

Types of Online Poker Fraud

Let’s review the most popular methods of scammers.

Multi-Accounting

As it goes in the Arkose Labs report, the growth of attacks in iGaming is connected with the new account fraud. There are some specific ways to use multi-accounting in online poker.

Gnoming

It’s one of the most popular schemes of cheating in online poker. A person uses two or more accounts for playing at one table. The scammer sees more cards and has more chances to win.

Chip Dumping

Multi-accounting could be used not only for dishonest advantage in a game but only for dumping money from one account to another. It could be a way of laundering illegal income (e.g. to get money from a stolen credit card).

Bonus Abuse

Many online poker operators offer no-deposit bonuses to attract new players. Scammers can create many accounts to get these bonuses, dump them into one of them and then cash out.

Blackmailing

In some countries, there is a law on responsible gambling. A person can mark themselves as having gambling problems and an operator must limit his playing activity. Fraudsters often declare themselves as problem gamblers, log in to an alternative account, and break the limit. After that, they blame the operator for violating the law and demand payment for not-snitching.

Colluding

Two or more scammers can play at one table in cooperation. They know each other’s cards and act in a specific way to lure money from honest players.

Poker Bots

There is software that can play online itself, choosing the most optimal tactics. A real player can beat it but a bot has some dishonest advantages. It is never tiring or in excitement and it has no emotions. It practically always wins over long distances.

Hacking

It’s the most difficult but most dangerous method of fraud. Cracking the client application seems to be useless because the platform doesn’t send any information the player is not supposed to know, such as his opponents’ cards. But a scammer could get illegal access to the server information and see all the cards.

Identity theft is another problem associated with hacking. When a hacker accesses player information, they can use it to create new accounts and indulge in various forms of fraud, such as bonus abuse and money laundering. They may also sell the acquired data to third parties, enabling more criminal activities.

Payment-Related Frauds and Money Laundering

Payment methods are a crucial feature of any poker gambling platform that offers real money games. However, an online poker scam involving financial fraud or stolen banking information can happen and affect your business operations. For instance, unauthorised access to banking systems can lead to money laundering and other unlawful acts listed below.

Carding

Carding is a type of online poker fraud where criminals steal card information such as the debit or credit card number and the CVV. A fraudster can use these details to upload funds to their gaming account. When this happens, the criminal benefits from illegally obtained money.

Chargebacks

Poker room operators can also lose money in the form of chargebacks. When a card is stolen and used by a thief to deposit money, the legitimate owner may request a refund from the card issuer or bank. The operator has to return the whole amount and pay processing fees. Some fraudsters also use chargeback schemes to retrieve the money they have actually lost to an online gaming operator.

Phone Top-Up Abuse

Fraudsters who have mastered the art of deception and phishing can lure depositors into funding other accounts. This can happen when iGaming operators accept phone top-up options for payments. Users who are easily tricked may transfer money to the scammers’ accounts. Unfortunately, it can take a long time to recover the lost money.

How Does Poker Fraud Affect an Online Gambling Site?

An online poker site with real money games is similar to any other business. That is, the operator aims to provide a reliable gambling platform to meet the needs of players and generate some revenue in the process. However, poker fraud can have devastating effects on player experiences and the casino’s operations in the long run. It can affect a gaming platform in the following ways if not prevented as early as possible:

• A Decrease in Revenue and Gambling Profits: Poker fraud can lead to additional losses and unwanted expenses associated with bonus abuse, refunds, and the extra money an operator may use to combat crime.

• Issues With Payment Providers: Companies that facilitate gambling payments may no longer want to collaborate with an operator with high chargeback rates and other payment-related problems reported by players or detected by regulators.

• Loss of Time and Money: It takes the operator’s precious time, effort, money, and other costly resources to deal with online poker fraudsters.

• • An Overburdened Support Team: Instead of spending time helping legitimate players, the support team may be overburdened with too many fraud-related complaints and thus direct their efforts to unproductive activities.
  • Legal Issues and Fines Due to Non-Compliance: Online casino operators who do not comply with anti-money laundering guidelines or prevent poker fraud risk facing legal issues, which can lead to spending extra money on fines and other charges.

• Failure to Meet Customers’ Needs: Players who have been the victims of fraudulent acts may decide to play elsewhere out of dissatisfaction and concern over losing money and sensitive information to scammers if a gambling establishment fails to implement the necessary fraud detection and prevention tools.

Preventing Online Poker Fraud

There is no universal way to prevent scamming. Every single countermeasure can be bypassed. Therefore, you should use them in a complex.

KYC

In many countries, operators must use KYC tools. A complex user verification helps to make sure that the player is the person they claim to be. The need to upload documents complicates using multi-accounting and bots.

Player Identification

You should keep data of all logging into the game. Every time a person tries to log in you should check his IP address, device, browser fingerprint, etc. Then the system should check if there are matches in the database. If there are two or more players using the same device or IP, it’s grounds to suspect multi-accounting.

Also, sometimes when a player loses a lot of money and becomes too upset they report a card or an account theft. In this case, the legend goes that a thief played poker but not the card/account owner. Log-in checking and KYC help to discover the deception and prevent false refund requests.

Password Strength Demand

Despite creating accounts, scammers can breach the accounts of other players. To avoid it, you ought to set requirements for password length, small and capital letters and special symbols usage. Also, two-factor authentication could be useful too.

Game Analysis

There are a number of fraud signs in players’ behaviour. You can compare the win chances of every hand of a player and their actual statistics. If there are long sessions with a very high and stable success, it’s a ground to suspect bot usage. Collusion also has specific signs. You just need to use special software to analyse and detect them. The deep game analysis also allows the identification of specific playing patterns (bet size manipulations, hand strength used to play, etc.) that could lead to a bot or a botnet discovery.

For example, the EvenBet anti-fraud system uses the scoring of suspicious actions. If the score is high enough, the system signals to the administration or kicks out the player automatically (depends on your configuration).

User Behaviour Analysis

Analysing user behaviour is an effective way to prevent fraud-rated crimes on a poker platform. This fraud prevention strategy entails examining the actions taken by players to establish if they are legitimate or not. It entails device fingerprinting and digital footprint analysis.

Device fingerprinting is all about using recognition technology by analysing various attributes such as device ID, browser, screen size, display quality, operating system, and other critical parameters. If there’s a discrepancy in the device’s identification data, then the transaction in question may be fraudulent. The operator should pay more attention to that player’s behaviour to determine if their actions are legal.

Digital footprint analysis involves examining the data trail a user creates when accessing a poker site. A thorough inspection of this information can help operators monitor the online activities of players, including fraudulent behaviour. Unusual login times, the use of VPNs, or a constantly changing IP address are common signs of gambling fraud.

Behaviour analysis also entails keeping an eye on potential bonus abusers. These people often engage in multi-accounting to earn chips or bonuses illegally. They may only play specific games, withdraw money immediately after meeting the wagering requirements, or follow the same gaming patterns for a long time.

Anti-Fraud System

Deploying an anti-fraud system is one of the best ways to prevent online poker fraud. The most reliable gambling fraud prevention tools are powered by the latest technology. They utilise artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to protect players, online casinos, sportsbooks, poker rooms, and other betting platforms from potentially harmful criminal activities.

You can protect your online poker business from scam schemes by capitalising on EvenBet Gaming’s anti-fraud tools. The company’s fraud detection system aligns with AML policies and uses machine learning to detect potential poker bots and analyse in-game player activity with exceptional accuracy. All poker rounds undergo extensive checks to make sure that there is no cheating. Moreover, EvenBet’s robust measures include using enhanced checks during registration to verify player identity through KYC procedures. Therefore, as an operator, you can have peace of mind knowing that all player actions are strictly monitored.

How to Punish a Fraudster

If fraud is obvious and can be easily proved, you can just suspend the player and report it to the police. But unfortunately, often you cannot be sure if a player is a fraudster. In this case, you can set some restrictions that prevent cheating.

For example, the EvenBet anti-fraud system allows you to restrict playing at the same table or in the same tournament for particular players if you suspect multi-accounting or colluding.

Mind the Security

To prevent online poker fraud, you should find the most secure server and database solution. Also, you should organise the management carefully. Configure the access levels for your employees and assign clear responsibilities to them.

EvenBet Gaming pays particular attention to the issue. We have ISO 27001 certification that proves that we manage information security according to international best practices.

EvenBet Gaming integrates anti-fraud solutions for the clients’ projects and provides support. Our experts are always ready to help discover the dishonest game in any difficult case. You are welcome to ask for the details on the EvenBet poker platform.