Poker players have acute memories when it comes to poker cheating scandals, a fact that was again illustrated this week by a mounting furore on poker forums like twoplustwo regarding the relationship between payment processor PayPal and anti-fraud device reputation company Iovation.
Iovation was founded by Greg Pierson, who has also been named as one the fratboys who founded Ultimatebet – Absolute Poker and was allegedly implicated in the multi-million dollar hole-card cheating scandals that erupted several years ago (see previous reports) and continue to resurface bitterly even today.
Given Iovation’s origins, players are upset at revelations that PayPal has been sharing personal account information with Iovation as part of its use of third parties in anti-fraud measures.
Poker players are being urged to complain to PayPal about the relationship, with twoplustwo users providing a suggested email letter detailing the reasons for player distress.
That’s a tactic that has been effective before, when players complained after it was discovered that Iovation had been deployed by Fertitta Interactive’s new Ultimate Poker site preparing for the Nevada online poker market. Ultimate Poker severed its links with the anti-fraud company.
In one post a respected twoplustwo poker player who was instrumental in uncovering the cheating at Absolute Poker and UltimateBet, Michael Josem, wrote:
“People who steal money should be in prison, and leading financial organisations like Paypal should not be trusting them with our personally identifiable information.”