Betfair stole 8575.42 Euro from my Moneybookers / Skrill account

[Markus]

Hello,

In the period from 12th September 2011 to 5th October 2011 I have made several deposits to Betfair using Moneybookers, in total 1040 Euro. In the same period I have also made several withdrawals from Betfair using Moneybookers, in total 9742 Euro. At each time I have requested a withdrawal from Betfair, Betfair reviewed the withdrawal request and then successfully paid out the money to my Moneybookers account.

On 19th October 2011 Moneybookers charged back all my Betfair withdrawals of 9742 Euro back to Betfair. Moneybookers told me that they did this on behalf of Betfair. They didn't give me an explanation why they have done this and they told me I have to contact Betfair for further details. I did contact Betfair by e-mail but I didn't get any response from them.

Usually Moneybookers has a policy of not allowing chargebacks in disputes but they ignored this policy in this case without giving an conceivable explanation. In my opinion this action is illegal because at the moment the money was credited to my Moneybookers account the money became my property. If Betfair wants the money back for some reason they have to file a dispute against me. Furthermore at the time they did the chargeback (19th October 2011) I had only funds on my Moneybookers account that were unrelated to Betfair, because I have already paid out all my Betfair winnings from Moneybookers to my bank account.

In the final response from Moneybookers they justified thier action by claiming that I might violated any law or regulation or I might breached any of Moneybookers Terms of Use. But they didn't told me what exactly it is that I have violated or breached and what evidence they have. This is what Moneybookers wrote me:

Dear Mr. L.,

We are contacting you in regards to the complaint you have recently filed with us about our decision to reverse transactions related to your Betfair winnings.

Firstly, we would like to thank you for your patience with us while we have been considering your complaint as we recognize the importance of the issue and fully understand your frustration. Having carefully investigated your case we are hereby submitting our Final response, as in case you decide to refer your complaint to our regulator (Financial Services Authority) and their specialized complaints handling unit (Financial Ombudsman Service), you will be requested to provide such. Further details on escalation and how your complaint will be handled are available below as well as in the copy of our complaints handling procedure sent to you in our previous email.

Going forward, we would like to confirm a transaction for the amount of 9742.00 EUR has been manually processed by our team on 19 Oct 2011 (ID 514854019) and the respective amount has been credited to the account of Betfair. Our decision and the adjoining actions lay on the following grounds, assumed valid under, but not limited to the following circumstances:

* a violation of any law or regulation that is applicable to your use of Moneybookers services
* breach of any of Moneybookers' Terms of Use

In corroboration of the above, please be kindly asked to refer to sections 11. Prohibited Transactions applicable in the case at hand.

"11. Prohibited Transactions
11.1. It is strictly forbidden to send or receive payments as consideration for the sale or supply of:

• Tobacco products
• Prescription drugs
• Drugs and drug paraphernalia
• Firearms or ammunition
• Weapons and knives
• Satellite and cable TV descramblers
• Pornography
• Government IDs and licences including replicas and novelty items
• Unlicensed lotteries or gambling services
• Prepaid debit cards or other stored value cards that are not associated with a particular merchant and are not limited to purchases of particular products or services
• Multi-level marketing, pyramid selling or ponzi schemes, matrix programmes or other “get rich quick” schemes or high yield investment programmes
• Goods or services that infringe the intellectual property rights of a third party.

Moneybookers reserves the right to add, at its sole discretion, categories of prohibited transactions by adding such categories either to these Terms of Use or an acceptable use policy published on the Website.

11.2. It is strictly forbidden to make payments to or to receive payments from persons or entities offering illegal gambling services, including (but not limited to) illegal sports betting, casino games and poker games. We may suspend or terminate your Moneybookers Account at any time or refuse to execute or reverse a transaction if we believe that you directly or indirectly use or have used your Moneybookers Account for or in connection with illegal gambling transactions. Countries where online gambling is illegal include the United States of America, Turkey, China, Malaysia and Israel. This list is not exhaustive and it is your responsibility to ensure that you do not use our services for transactions that may be considered illegal in your jurisdiction.

11.3. You may not use Moneybookers’ services if you are residing in any of the following countries: Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen. This list is not exhaustive and we may in our sole discretion decide to discontinue or restrict our services in other countries at any time and without prior notice. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your Moneybookers Account at any time if we reasonably believe to be required to do so by law or in order to comply with recommendations issued by a relevant government authority or recognised body for the prevention of financial crime.

11.4. It is strictly forbidden to use your Moneybookers Account for any illegal purposes including but not limited to fraud and money laundering. Moneybookers will report any suspicious activity to the relevant law enforcement agency. You are prohibited from using your Moneybookers Account in an attempt to abuse, exploit or circumvent the usage restrictions imposed by a merchant on the services it provides.

11.5. You may only accept payments for certain categories of business after the approval by Moneybookers in its sole discretion. Such business categories include but are not limited to:

• money exchange or remittance businesses, including but not limited to bureaux de change, currency exchanges and purchase of travel money;
• the collection of any form of donations or payments to charitable or not-for-profit organisations;
• dealing in natural resources such as jewels, precious metals or stones;
• the sale or supply of alcoholic beverages; or
• the sale of supply of dietary supplements and alternative health products;
• any other business category published in an Acceptable Use Policy on the Website;

In case you are in doubt whether your business falls under any of the above categories, you must contact Customer Service. Moneybookers reserves the right to add, at its sole discretion, business categories requiring approval by adding such categories either to these Terms of Use or an acceptable use policy published on the Website.

11.6. If you conduct or attempt to conduct any transaction in violation of the prohibitions contained in this section 11 or without the necessary approval under section 11.5, we reserve the right to:

• reverse the transaction; and/or
• close or suspend your Account; and/or
• report the transaction to the relevant law enforcement agency; and/or
• claim damages from you; and
• charge you an administration fee of up to 150 EUR in case we apply any of the above.

11.7. It is your and not Moneybookers’ responsibility to ensure that you only send payments to or receive payments from persons or entities for the sale or supply of goods and services that you may provide or receive in compliance with any applicable laws and regulations. The mere fact that a person or entity accepts payments through Moneybookers is not an indication of the legality of the supply or provision of their goods and services. If you are in doubt as to the legality of a supply or purchase, you should not continue with your payment."

Please note that due to compliance restrictions applied on Moneybookers, we will not be able to provide you with additional details about our decision to reverse the mentioned amount, however, you should feel invited to contact the respective merchant and enquire with them directly.

We realize that our response is likely to come as a disappointment to you and that this is not the outcome you have been expecting. Still, we hope you will understand our position on this issue as we have acted in full compliance with our published policies. In case you think that you have not been treated fairly or that we have violated our mutual contract in any way, you should feel free to contact any official authorities/third parties and escalate the issue as you consider appropriate, including referring your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. This would depend on the nature of the complaint and whether within the rules of the Service the person making the complaint is "eligible" to refer the matter to the Ombudsman (within the eligible time frame of 6 months set by them). The Ombudsman Service exists to provide independent adjudication and investigation will be undertaken prior to making a decision about outstanding disputes. The Ombudsman can be contacted direct at the following address:

Financial Ombudsman Service
PO Box 4
South Quay Plaza
183 Marsh Wall
London
E14 9SR

Telephone: 0845 080 1800
Switchboard: 020 7964 1000
Main Fax: 020 7964 1001

E-mail address: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk

We hope this information has been useful for your and kindly apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Regards,

Yavor
Complaints Department
Moneybookers.com

Betfair already paid 1166.58 Euro back to me, after I have argued with Moneybookers, that if Betfair declare all my bets invalid then, if any, only my winnings, i.e. the difference between deposits (1040 Euro) and withdrawals (9742 Euro) can be confiscated, but not my deposits as well. However I still demanding that Moneybookers restores the remaining 8575.42 Euro, because I have rightfully won this amount and charging back my winnings by Moneybookers was wrong in the first place.

I'm planing to use the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Any advices from Casinomeister members would be very much appreciated!

[deucebag]

Have you asked Betfair why they wanted this money charged back? Or do you already know?

[Markus]

Have you asked Betfair why they wanted this money charged back? Or do you already know?

Yes, I have wrote an e-mail to their support and asked them why they charged back my money. No response. To be honest I do not expect any useful answer anyway, because of their "speak to the hand" attitude. I did know they are roguish, shame on me that I have played there. But I didn't expected that they would go this far and steal money from my Moneybookers account.

[jetset]

This is not the first time that Betfair has confiscated winnings it has already paid out to a player through an independent e-cash processing entity (there's another thread here concerning a Portuguese player who had a large amount of money withdrawn from his bank account at the behest of Betfair)

I find this sort of situation, where a betting company can apparently simply demand that money in a player's private bank or e-cash account he withdrawn and paid to it, of great concern on fairness, security and privacy levels, and yet nothing seems to happen to the likes of Betfair when they pull this sort of autocratic stunt.

Usually the player is the last person to know about the withdrawal from his account, and is not given the opportunity to contest the issue before his cash is taken.

Surely this cannot be right?

Betfair seems to be going from bad to worse...hopefully when Breon Corcoran - an experienced online gambling exec - takes over as CEO he will review the manner in which this company has been operating lately.

[chayton]

Forgive me if I'm being dense, but reading the response from Moneybookers, it sounds like it's them who returned the money to the casino because of this:

"11. Prohibited Transactions
11.1. It is strictly forbidden to send or receive payments as consideration for the sale or supply of:
.....
• Unlicensed lotteries or gambling services

[bb28]

Forgive me if I'm being dense, but reading the response from Moneybookers, it sounds like it's them who returned the money to the casino because of this:

But yet it goes on to detail what countries that it is prohibited in, so maybe this doesn't apply in this instance??

"Countries where online gambling is illegal include the United States of America, Turkey, China, Malaysia and Israel. This list is not exhaustive and it is your responsibility to ensure that you do not use our services for transactions that may be considered illegal in your jurisdiction.

[vinylweatherman]

Looks like a cover up. The ONLY item that might be applicable is the receipt of money from an "illegal operation", thus Moneybookers are implying that Betfair are an "unlicensed illegal gambling operation". The email from Moneybookers tries to make out it was they who authorised this transaction under their own terms of use, but this is bullshit.

Keep that email, and use it in your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman, since this email gives the official "on the record" reason for their decision, and it's bollocks. The Ombudsman will investigate based on what Moneybookers gave you as an explanation, and when they find out that it was really Betfair that demanded the money back, and Moneybookers just went ahead and did it based solely on their word, there could be a number of regulation breaches, and this could leave the way wide open for you to sue Moneybookers for the return of the funds and damages, not Betfair.

You could also take this complaint to the media, and make the FSA look "stupid" in allowing this loophole to exist and be used.

The fact that the money taken was NOT the money actually paid in by Betfair would further strengthen your case.

They could NOT have done this so easily with a BANK. The ONLY reason they got away with it with the Portuguese player was that the actual money they had paid in was still there, but had the player moved it, the bank would have refused to return it, and the player could then have ditched that account so that it could never be raided again.

You could also sue Betfair, and they would have to show that you violated the terms as stated, not some "spirit". The fact that they approved these withdrawals, and later changed their mind considerably weakens their case, and they would have to then show that you deceived them into paying in the first place.

Betfair was even threatening to take PLAYERS to court unless they paid back money that had been moved out of their reach when they tried to take it back. It was a bluff, as clearly Betfair didn't want this affair to get anywhere near a court in case a judgment went against them, and opened the proverbial floodgates.

You may have to take this all the way, Financial Ombudsman, FSA, and the court. Betfair or Moneybookers may only take this seriously when a summons from the court arrives, at which point they are likely to want to negotiate out of court to ensure the case is never tried.

The UK banks were caving in at the last minute for years over the bank charges issue, and it had to be FORCED to court by one of the regulators, which unfortunately ended up giving the banks a better result than they had feared, and didn't really help the consumer.

Whilst Moneybookers isn't a bank, it still has a primary obligation to protect the funds in it's care, and if it goes against it's own policy that transactions are final once made, it needs to demonstrate a damn good reason for it.


For the rest of us, it is a demonstration of how RISKY it is to leave our money in the long term care of these eWallets, and in terms of this kind of incident, Moneybookers seems to be the worst.

It is interesting to note that Moneybookers itself promotes a few "illegal/unlicensed gambling operations", as you can deposit into Virtual Group casinos from it, and they do not check the licensing status of casinos they accept as merchants. They also let criminals sign up as "fake merchants" through lack of proper checks, which is how those completely fake casinos (such as Ministering Angel) manage to accept so called "reputable" deposit options in their brief existence before they get busted.

[KasinoKing]

I'm planing to use the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Any advices from Casinomeister members would be very much appreciated!

I have several comments:

a) Typical Betfair They did it before and they are doing it again. I'm sorry Markus, but anyone who continues to patronise this ROGUED company is playing with fire and so should not too surprised when this type of shit happens.

b) Typical MoneyBookers When I had €880 stolen from my MB account and reported it within a few hours they apparently could NOT get the money back from the merchant it went to. But when Betfair calls - they jump

c) I don't know if the Ombudsman Service can help - but if they do it will take at least 3 to 4 months - so you'll have to be patient.
I submitted my compliant to them; after 2 weeks I got a reply saying they are very busy and it could take up to 12 more weeks to look at my case. So I would start the process ASAP if I were you.

KK

[Mousey]

We're all well aware that Betfair lost its collective sanity some months ago.

We have no idea what or why (if they need a reason) to behave as they have, but I do believe, even if they think you've commited fraud, that they owe you some sort of explaination. Moneybookers are proving themselves very pliable as far as chargeback by the casinos, but give absolutely no consideration to their lowly users -- players. And their 'form letter' quoting their T&C is a slap in face -- especially considering the amount of money removed from the player's MB account.

As Vinyl has already stated, situations like this serve as strong warnings to all who may leave funds lying about online. (This is, of course, the main reason players HAVE an ewallet, but it seems too easy for funds to be stolen by hackers and/or confiscated by casinos that 'change their mind'.)

To the OP: please keep safe any and all correspondence, account history at MB, and even your deposit/withdraw history at Betfair would be excellent, also. I would strongly suggest that you do contact the ombudsman immediately with all pertinent information.

I wish you luck, and would like to see updates should you decide to take this further.

[threescatters]

Can only echo whats been said here already. Disgusting by both Betfair and Skrill/Moneybookers. Please take this further OP