How to avoid poker scams: what to check before you deposit

Someone builds a page that looks exactly like a poker room's login page, puts it at an address one letter away from the room's, and sends the link out in messages and search adverts. You log in, and they have your password. The defence is simple: reach the room through your own bookmark or by typing the address, never through a link in a message, and turn on two-factor authentication so a stolen password alone is not enough.

A message arrives on Telegram or Discord from someone who says they are an agent, a club manager or a member of a site's staff, offering a better bonus or a seat in a private game if you send your deposit to their wallet. No poker room takes deposits anywhere but in its own cashier, and no agent needs your money to seat you. Our own club, Crypto Poker Network on Basepoker, works the same way: the buy-ins are paid inside Basepoker, and nobody from this site will ever send you a wallet address.

A huge match bonus is only as good as its release terms. Watch for a bonus that is released in one piece only after a volume of play that would take years, that expires in a week, or whose terms are not written anywhere you can read before you deposit. A fair bonus says in plain words how it is released, over what period, and what happens to the part you do not reach. The bonus terms of Basepoker and WePlay are written out that way.

A new site, no licence on the page, no history anyone can find, and a withdrawal that is always being processed. The test is cheap: deposit a small amount, play a little, and withdraw. If the money comes back, you have learned something worth knowing. If it does not, you have lost little.

A licence does not make a room honest, but a room that shows none has chosen not to answer to anyone. Basepoker and WePlay both name their licence on their own pages: WePlay in Anjouan (ALSI-152406049) and Basepoker in Costa Rica (Base Technologies Limited).

Two players who share their cards, or a program playing instead of a person, are a risk at every online room, and the room's own security is the main defence. Signs worth noting: two players who are always at the same table and never play a big pot against each other, or a player who acts at exactly the same speed every time for hours. Note the names and the hand numbers and report them to the room. Then leave that table.

Accounts are taken over through reused passwords leaked from some other site, through email accounts without two-factor authentication, and through phone numbers moved to a new SIM by a scammer who talked the phone company into it. Give the poker room its own password, protect the email address you registered with, and prefer an authenticator app over a text message for the second factor.

Almost every rigged-deck complaint on the internet is variance: the normal spread of results, which is far wider than players expect. A room with a licence and a stated shuffle procedure has little to gain from a rigged deck and a business to lose. An unlicensed room with no such statement is a different matter, and the answer is the same as for the room that does not pay: keep little on it and test the withdrawal early.

1. The address bar shows the room's own domain, and you typed it or used your bookmark.
2. The room names a licence on its own site.
3. The bonus terms say how and when the bonus is released, and what happens to the rest.
4. The deposit address came from the room's cashier, not from a person.
5. You have turned on two-factor authentication.
6. Your first deposit is small, and you withdraw part of it before you send more.

1. Save everything: screenshots of the cashier, the chat, the messages, and every transaction ID.
2. Change the password and the second factor on the room and on the email account, and check that your email has no forwarding rule you did not set.
3. Write to the room's support with the evidence and the hand numbers or transaction IDs. If a licence body is named, write to it as well.
4. Tell other players, with the facts and the addresses used. A warning on the right forum stops the next person.
5. A crypto transfer cannot be reversed by anyone. Treat money sent to a scammer's wallet as gone, and do not pay anyone who promises to recover it for a fee. That is the next scam.