Common Online Poker Scams

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The internet is rife with scammers and crooks. That’s a fact of life. Some of these scammers make their way into the world of online poker. Unfortunately, there are players that are taken advantage of every day in poker. Today, we will go over some of the most common scams you’ll see in online poker. Some are individual scams while others are more elaborate.

Money Transfer Scams

Some people have trouble moving money off of online poker sites. This may be due to limited withdrawal options or the player may need the cash faster than the withdrawal process allows. As such, these players often try to make a swap. Someone sends them money on PayPal or another funding source and they transfer money to that person’s online poker account.

Scammers will try and target these people by offering to swap money. Almost always, it involves the person getting the player needing money to send first. Some will even legitimately swap a few smaller amounts to gain your trust. However, once you send a larger amount, they disappear.

The best way to avoid this is to not swap money with people you don’t know. Online poker sites will generally not be able to help you get your money back if you lose it this way, so your best option is to avoid running into this issue.

Phishing Scams

There are phishing scams tied to various industries and you’ll find them with online poker sites. You’ll get an email from PokerStars or another site saying that your account is suspended or under review. You must then go and verify your account information. However, if you go to the site and enter your data, nothing happens. That’s because the site is fake and they just stole your info.

You can usually spot these attempts by closely looking at the links sent to you. They will usually not point to the website you’re playing at. The email addresses will also be suspicious-looking. Even the text of the email may contain misspellings, grammatical errors, and other clues.

If you get an email claiming something is wrong with your account, don’t reply to the email. Contact customer support for your poker site to verify if there is a problem.

Bitcoin Scams

With the explosion of Bitcoin over the last few years, we have seen the rise of many scams. Bitcoin poker sites are not immune to this trend. Several scammy sites have shut down over the years but some still pop up on occasion.

The sites are generally anonymous poker sites that have little or no customer support. You can deposit almost any crypto, but the withdrawal amounts are usually insanely high. Typically what happens is that you’ll find the games difficult to beat or you’ll find a ton of bots on them. Worse still, if you happen to get the money to cash out, you will either find yourself unable to cash out or the casino will trump up a phony charge and ban your account. Often, players will make a withdrawal request and nothing ever happens.

Spyware Scams

While a bit more elaborate than your average scam, there are still some people that fall victim to spyware scams. Software gets installed on a player’s computer that allows their opponent to see their desktop screen, thus allowing opponents to see your cards.

Generally, this is more of a personal scam involving some form of data transfer directly from another party. If you have an opponent that wants you to install a third-party communication program you don’t use or to install any form of software that you don’t use, don’t play with them. It doesn’t matter if they are the biggest donkey on Earth. You’re setting yourself up for a scam.