Poker has always had a despicable element (anytime money is involved theses people tend to appear), so while the advent of online poker has gotten rid of the cheats and angle-shooters, it has given rise to a new breed of despicable human being: Scammers.

Scammers come in all shapes and sizes, some looking for $5 handout and others walking of $50,000. Whatever the monetary amount scammers all have one thing in common; your money hits their hands before their money finds its way to you.

The $5 scammer usually appears at an online poker table or forum claiming he can pay you back, and more importantly, its only $5. But let’s be frank, if someone has lost their entire bankroll and is ‘begging’ for $5, you will never see or hear from this person again.

The mid-range scammer usually attempts the person-to-person transfer (and will often try to use paypal because of its policies and the capability of reversing the transaction). A lot of scammers use the “I’ve been ripped off before, you send first” line, or anything that would delay them from sending the money: I don’t have computer access at the moment or whatever they can cook up in their head.

The big-time scammer needs to have built a solid reputation in order to walk off with thousands, or tens of thousands. Some bigger scams that have happened involve a solid player who walked off with stake money, never to be heard from again (this is the anonymous Internet after all, you have no way of knowing if I am who I say I am). Another player tried to sell Full Tilt Poker points for cash, and was able to make off with a few thousand dollars before people started to get suspicious.

The best way to protect yourself from become a victim of a scammer is to not transfer money over the Internet. Or, at the very least only deal with people you know in real-life. Notice in all the scams there is a reason that the player has your money and you do not have theirs.

Not transfering to people you don't know IRL seems crazy to me, just don't transfer anything you can't afford to loose, transfer peice by peice and try to transfer to people yo have made other smaller transactions with before.

The intenet is just like the rest of the world, people will rip you off, every transaction is a gamble, and no amount of tin foil hattery is going to stop you loosing out in some transactions.

This is terrible for the staking comunity, not everyone is planning to escape with your pennies and the majority of us have made 100s of transactions without any problems.

Avoiding "can I haz monies? Will sendz gold." will keep you fairly safe.

This is mainly here so I can get some amount of "I told you so" when I inevitably get scammed.

this is very true..another scam I want to touch on is gaming sites..spadester.com use to appear as a scam by not honoring payouts, but now they've worked out the kinks, and they payout anytime. I've heard of other sites though that NEVER payout for years...those are the scams you need to watch out for!!!

Originally Posted by Denis S

this is very true..another scam I want to touch on is gaming sites..spadester.com use to appear as a scam by not honoring payouts, but now they've worked out the kinks, and they payout anytime. I've heard of other sites though that NEVER payout for years...those are the scams you need to watch out for!!!

Nice first post to mention a website... you scammer you...

[ ] Scammer = spammer
[x] Hardly spam if he mentions the site is bad at paying out and doesn't post a link

Originally Posted by MJPerry

[ ] Scammer = spammer
[x] Hardly spam if he mentions the site is bad at paying out and doesn't post a link

Actually, he mentioned how people THOUGHT it was a scam, but now they're good at paying out. It looked spam-ish to me, too.

Yeah. Too many of them.. I think the computer MAKES scammers, the excitement of 'being able to get away with it' lures people into doing it. And since its over the computer, scammers think everyone they jip arent human beings like them - theyre just a non-existing face behind the computer. I just got scammed last week out 50$ trying to transfer my FTP to paypal - the guy asked me me to send first, and then paid me and I noticed it was via e-check and would take 3-5 days to clear. Reversed it the next morning and gave me a BS excuse that he didn't do it. Hes still carrying this on. Its pathetic - the worst part is that they'll never admit they scammed you, its either permanent cut from all contact, lead you on to believe you'll eventually get it, or be so convinced that they didn't scam you that they'll make pretend things are okay, or that you are the scammer.

Pathetic.

scammers suck

Originally Posted by Gahba

scammers suck

ICWUDT

Originally Posted by Gahba

scammers suck

Hey..he's got a point there...