Privacy, Internet Billing Services / Grand Virtual and a bit of a rant!

[Shocked]

Hiya

Fairly new to online casinos and have been enjoying the experience, though I'm not sure my bank account has been so much =)

Anyhoo, things were hunkydory until a few days ago when i joined up to Imperial Casino and after going through the startup bonus (well most of it) my a/c there was held to be 'verified' due to 'unusual activity'. I presume that it was because I'm signed up at Luix and Glamour. Now I quite those Casino's - their design is kinda kooky and thee table games well presented and fast (and easy to use), but the can't say I think much of their system of verifying players - basically, I get this email from this company who I don't know, without a name or a return email addy or a telephone number, demanding that I give them photocopies of photo ID, credit cards, CC statements and a 'purchase authorisation' which looks suspiciously like "I give permission for this company to do anything they want with my CC accounts".

Now, I just find this plain rude, I wasn't terribly happy about giving Neteller so much bank detail, but they were helpful and pleasant and were clearly doing me a service. I tried to call this 'IBS' lot (who are not that far from me) and I got told twice that I would be called back and they haven't done so. I have let them see a copy of a utilities bill, a screenie of my neteller a/c and my drivers licence - though they are bothered that I've pixlated out my signture for very obious reasons.

Seriously, assuming that Internet Billing Services are not dodgy (something that I'm not convinced of) - have they never heard of identity theft? Giving out your details to all and sundry is not something to be advised, but giving copies of your most financially sensitive documents to anonymous companies via insecure methods??!??!

Bah Humbug. Yeah, I know Grand Virtual have a good rep and I'm sure it's well deserved, but seriously, they should sort out who deals with the money side of things for them.

Thanks for letting me rant - going back to PaddyPower to feed my late night slot addiction =) =)

[suzecat]

Hi Shocked, welcome and thanks for the post!

Can't disagree with a person's gut feeling about giving out info on the net. You can't be too careful these days.

Don't have anything against the casino group, just never played there.

[Mousey]

Like you, I'm extremely careful about how much personal and financial info I share. Perhaps the Grand Virtual rep here at CM can help you.

http://www.casinomeister.com/forums/...virtualcs.html

Go there and click on Send PM and send him a private message.

Good luck!

Sidenote to GV rep: a list of your casino properties by name would be helpful in the 'Casino Properties' section, as many of us look for the casino by name and not always by group. Thanks!

[Shocked]

Thanks for the replies =)

They've sent a reply to my last email apologising for going on about my debit / imaginary credit cards, though still asking for my signature off my photo ID...at least it sounded like they were sending me a personal email as opposed to copy and pasting and assuming I'll be fine with it.

Mousey, thanks for the suggestion, but I'm really not sure how much connection IBS has with Grand Virtual - I'm tempted to think they are pretty much the same entity and the time it takes customer support (and the type of email addy they use) suggests that they are.

Anyhoo, they seem to have few complaints against them here, so I'll let them see the the full photo ID and see if they are bothered about me registering with 3 of the casinos (presumably that was what made them want to 'verify' me in the first place) and close two accounts if they are.

Thanks for the help and happy Xmas!