William Hill Casino Club - are they for real?

[bagpussandco]

Hi Guys,

I signed up for William Hill Casino Club last week and following a deposit of £100 I made £40 on top. Not bad going. So I tried to cash out. Only a few problems with that:

1) They give credit card as an option to cash out but it seems that no cards (not even Visa debit) are allowed to be used for this.

2) I have had a series of emails claiming to be from them. The first email asked me to "declare my deposits with the casino". I have to print out the email, sign my details and then fax it back. Hmmm...I don't have a fax.

3) I then received another email from them. I've blocked out some personal information but I thought I'd show you all for your opinions:

Dear bagpussandco, We are processing your withdrawal request for the total amount of £140.00. As part of our security procedures, we ask that you provide front and back copies of the credit cards used to deposit in the account. We strongly recommend sending this document as an e-mail attachment to Support@WilliamHillCasino.com by scanning it or photographing it with a digital camera. If you cannot do so, you may try faxing them to: (Toll-free fax): United Kingdom: 0808-280-1485 or International: +63-275-679-47. Please enclose your username when sending your documents to assist us in locating your account. If after seven days we do not receive your fax, we will return the amount of your withdrawal request back to your balance. You may make your withdrawal request again, but we must be in receipt of the required fax before we can complete processing your withdrawal. Sincerely, William Hill Casino Club Finance Team

The formatting above is the same that I received.

Surely my details would have been validated when my credit card was debitted, especially as they asked for my full address for validation.

I just cannot believe they expect me to take photos of my card and send them via unsecured email. I have never heard of any casino (or any other business for that matter) that ask for this information, especially now that we are all supposed to be concerned about identity theft.

Any one else experience this issue? I am thinking of writing directly to William Hill to complain...I doubt it will get me anywhere but I just can't believe that they choose to operate these procedures.

Any advice would be gratefully accepted.

Cheers

Chris

[liquuid_fusion]

It should be acceptable to blank out any important information on the card. You can put a black box over the middle card numbers apart from the first and last 4, and cover up the CVV number on the back. It might be okay to block out other information too.

I've had to send card scans to some casinos in the past, but it's a rare request.

It's another sign of how downhill Will Hill has gone in buying these Playtech casinos. Previously I was a big customer with them, loads of deposits and withdrawals, never once asked to provide any kind of ID or scan by email.

[AudiManinBoro]

Ermm in my experience pretty much ALL casinos ask for this information and is nothing new. Pretty standard acrross the board really.

[vinylweatherman]

This is all pretty standard. Casinos don't give a toss about risks to OUR data by sending these images by fax or email. There IS a far more secure method of supplying these documents to casinos, BUT THEY WILL NOT IMPLEMENT IT because THEY are at no greater risk from US sending the documents by email.

A SECURE method would be to provide an HTTPS: webpage where we could UPLOAD these images, each tagged with our username for cross reference. This would be just as secure as online banking, and the images would not even BE in the "email tubes" to get intercepted, and it would be virtually impossible for them to get "lost in the ePost", which is a pretty common thing to have happen when sending documents via email.

Blocking out part of the card number and security code does render the image pretty useless to a criminal, but you will find you CANNOT block out ANYTHING on the other documents, and the images that result in total yield to a potential ID thief:-

1) Full name & address
2) Date of birth
3) Your SIGNATURE

This is the starting point for ID theft, it is enough, particularly with the signature as well on the deposit declaration form.

Unfortunately, whilst the authorities are seemingly concerned about ID theft, they continue to allow (through lack of regulatory rules) the practise of demanding ID documents be sent via email & fax, rather than encrypted uploads.

ID theft is on the rise, and the government wonders why

[pissedoff]

See my latest thread regarding William Hill.

As for their proceedures, it is all arse-about!

William Hill does not give a stuff who deposits money into an account. It only shows concern when someone wants to withdraw. That's when they demand all the private information.

If they really did care about players, they would ask for all this information upfront before you could play on their site. This would overcome, stolen cards and protect the real card holder. So in fact William Hill is happy to receive money into account, whether it is stolen or not. That shows you the calibre of the site. Truely ruthless and calious!

William Hill knows that if they demanded all the personal information from a player before he/she can open an account, they would lose too many potential players. So they are smart and calculating. They know that many players will find it too damn inconvenient to withdraw their money. Therefore William Hill benefits all the way. Disgraceful and shonky!!!

[pissedoff]

I have been with PKR pretty much since they started. Not once have they asked for any other information - other than my password to withdraw. And whilst I'm not happy about having to wait 3 weeks to receive a cheque, at least it is in Australian Dollars and is cleared within 3 working days. Very professional site. And a lot of fun. Very interactive with fantastic graphics.

[KasinoKing]

2) I have had a series of emails claiming to be from them. The first email asked me to "declare my deposits with the casino". I have to print out the email, sign my details and then fax it back. Hmmm...I don't have a fax.

I just cannot believe they expect me to take photos of my card and send them via unsecured email. I have never heard of any casino (or any other business for that matter) that ask for this information, especially now that we are all supposed to be concerned about identity theft.

Who does have a fax these days???
Anyway, you can use a scanner, or take a clear photo with a digital camera and e-mail it to them.
(Make sure you save your picture as Jpeg so it's not vast in memory size!)

I disagree with what others have said above about the credit card picture requirement being very common - I have only been asked this by about 6 casinos ever (from 160+), and most of them were dodgy RTGs I played at long before discovering CasinoMeister!

I too made a withdrawal from Will Hills in June, and I did e-mail them a scan of my Debit Card - I didn't see I had any other choice.
I agree this is a totally ludicrous & unnecessary request - I played at the old Crypto Will Hills for about 6 years, depositing & withdrawing loads of times & never sent them anything!

KK