Global Payment Says That No Servers on Its Network Is Breached

By John Isaac,
Editor at online-gambling.com

John Isaac Editor at online-gambling.com

John Isaac is an editor with many years of experience in the gambling industry. He writes expert articles on card games like blackjack and poker. In addition, he is also well aware of the US gambling laws and the Indian and Dutch gambling markets. You can rely on verified information and insightful details.

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Last updated: December 5, 2022

Global Payments, a company indirectly connected to a problem with fraudulent gaming transactions, has claimed that no servers on its network have been compromised. A few weeks ago, news began to make rounds on Twitter about a new online poker scam, and with each passing day, more information about the scam is exposed.

At the center of the issue is a fraudster who uses stolen data to create fake accounts on online gambling sites licensed in the US. Poker players who understand how the security systems work says the fraudster creating fake accounts is using data that is stored by VIP Preferred, the payment processor.

Both Licensed Operators and Online Poker Players Are Affected by the Payment Fraud

VIP Preferred, when used for the first time, stores some banking information on a database. With this, the user can make future deposits without inputting their bank details. The fraudster is taking advantage of this feature to deposit funds into a fake online poker account without requesting someone’s details. The fraudster deposits on an eCheck using VIP Preferred and routes the withdrawal through a fake Venmo account.

Once the withdrawal is processed and the funds are transferred from the fake Venmo account to the fraudster’s own account, the scam is completed. Since poker players like Todd Witteles started putting each piece of the scam puzzle together, the reports of suspicious activity have increased. An operations expert at Nuclear Nerds, Melissa Burr, has been closely observing the situation. She made a tweet on November 21 stating that the threat to online gamblers and poker players in the US continues to be very real. She is of the opinion, that the scam has been active since October 12 2022. And that those who may have used VIP Preferred may be a target.

Earlier reports mentioned suspicious activity at WSOP.com and BetMGM Poker. DraftKings is also mentioned as a platform that the fraudster has used to scam online gamblers. However, the security team at DraftKings believes that the fraudster must have stolen people’s personal details from sites elsewhere. The fraudster uses these details to set up fake accounts at DraftKings and some other US online gambling sites.

Next Line of Action from Global Payments

Global Payments, the parent company of VIP Preferred, released a statement confirming that none of its servers has been compromised. The company also says that information was stolen from another unaffiliated third-party site. Emily Edmonds, Global Payments Vice President of External Communications, mentioned in a statement that their gaming business is helping law enforcement investigate the fraudulent accounts that were created at unaffiliated third parties using personal information that was stolen.

Edmonds continued by saying that no security breach or scam accounts have been created at their gaming business in relation to the investigation. He reassured online poker players that they had already commenced investigation. There are undoubtedly still more things to learn as the situation changes. It appears that Global Payments and authorized US online poker sites have been targeted for attack. A fraudster has stolen people’s personal data from somewhere, and it’s allowing the fraudster to exploit gambling operators and their customers.