INTERNET SECURITY - A GOOD INCONVENIENCE

Thursday 8th June 2006

Today I claimed back the first cash profit of my month long exercise by cashing out most of my 888 Pacific Poker account. The money is sent back to my credit card after three days so we'll say Tuesday as it's bound to be working days.

I cashed out $486 which isn't bad considering that I only opened the account on Monday with $400. I left $22.39 in the account because I will definitely use it again. The ComeOnBoro 888 Pacific Poker tournament will resume after the World Cup and as I won the last two, I need to defend the title.

But for now, the object is to collect bonuses and there's the first one in the bag. Or back on the card, as the case may be.

I spent some time today investigating the best poker room to use next and I decided that Ladbrokes was the one to go for. In a nutshell, you get a $100 bonus paid in $10 instalments every time you play fifty hands/ That's 500 hands in total to claim the full amount, plus you get an $25 bonus just for filling out a profile with a photo.

I figured that I could take the full bonus and cash it out in around five days, making a $75 profit in the process, providing I made no losses on the table. But unfortunately, it wasn't to be.

When I opened my first account on Monday, there was no problem at all. But on Tuesday I opened three more and found that there was a block on my card, despite the the 888 Pacific Poker transaction being the only time I had ever used the card.

One discussion with the bank later and I discovered that the block was on because one of the fraudsters favourite activities with a stolen card is internet betting. I explained what I was doing and that I would be opening several accounts during the next few days and they immediatey lifted the block and said that there would be no more problems.

Well that just hasn't been the case because my payment to my new Ladbrokes account has not gone through due to the bank requiring authorisation, so I will have to call them in the morning and get the latest block lifted.

I figured that I would try Betfred instead but that also wasn't possible as I have received an email from Betfred saying that my address details hvae not matched up and that they need verifying before I can use my account again.

I wanted to place another football bet today but it's obviously futile to try and open any more accounts until I have spoken to the bank and to Betfred and cleared these matters up.

This is on one hand extremely irritating because I know that the card is good, the address is correct and that I am genuine. But on the other hand, it's a good thing because it is absolute confirmation that making credit card transactions on the internet is safer than it ever was.

I was already aware that 888 Pacific Poker have the most sophisticated fraud detection systems in place anywhere and it's good to see that the banks are staying one step ahead of the game and that other betting firms are being extremely vigilant as well, despite the inconvenience of having to make two phone calls in the morning.

I'm sure that when I write again tomorrow I will have the Ladbrokes account in operation and will have been able to place the World Cup bets that I wanted to place today.

In the meantime, this is a good time to summarise what bets we have placed so far and where we stand financially.

Accounts have been opened at 888 Pacific Poker, Total Bet, Paddy Power, Bet 365, Victor Chandler, Betfred and Stan James. The total amount invested into these accounts $400 plus £240. The whole of the £240 is tied up in pending bets and I will get a minimum of £222.50 of that figure back. The $400 is on the way back to my credit card, plus $86 profit. $22.39 remains in the account.

I have so far amassed a total of £130 in free bets, most of which are showing on the relevant accounts. I expect the others to appear by tomorrow and I can also claim free bets worth a total of £90 as I place further bets. Plus I will receive an extra £100 bonus on Monday if Australia beat Japan.

When we resume tomorrow, I will hopefully be fully back in action and will have taken advantage of some late offers that some of the bookies have weighed in with tonight. Luckily these offers are all from bookies that we haven't used yet.

Until tomorrow.

Steve

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