FBI Hoax Freezes Online Card Room PokerHost
Published: Friday, June 09, 2006 Online-Casinos.com
FBI HOAX FREEZES ONLINE CARD ROOM POKERHOST
Splash page at Poker Host's website has a scary message
Malicious individuals thought to be recently dismissed employees crippled the Poker Host.com site this week and gave users a nasty fright when they logged on to the popular online poker room.
After being prompted to supply all their personal information due to "unusual activity on their poker client", players were then provided with the following alert:
"Thank you for your cooperation.....Poker Host has been caught taking illegal wagers for United States citizens..... residing in jurisdictions with laws prohibiting such activities. As well as these suspicious gambling activities, other charges include tax evasion and racketeering.
"Your data, including phone number, address and IP location, has been sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to check if gambling is legal in your jurisdiction.
"If you think you have been a victim of fraud or identity theft by PokerHost please contact your local chapter of the FBI."
Early reports allege that former employees with password access to the domain name had hijacked the PokerHost.com website, adding the ominous message.
Poker Host is managed by SBG Global, which advised users not to enter their personal information when accessing PokerHost.
A Pokerhost spokesman said: "Unfortunately the owners of PokerHost.com and SBG Global are having a tough time getting the domain name back due to the fact that this occurred overseas. The minimum time period we anticipate for this to be switched back over will be two days."
