Tired of being ripped off

sponge63

Dormant account
Joined
May 14, 2005
Location
Brooklyn, NY
Hello, I am a certified school teacher in the USA . In late 2004, I got injured on the job, and ultimately needed five surgeries over the next 1 years. Since there is no workmens compensation with my company, while I was incapacitated I tried to make some money by playing blackjack online. I opened up a Neteller account and began playing at various casinos.
Some of those casinos used RTG software and were located in Costa Rica . Their names were Cirrus, Club Player, Virtual, Palace of Chance , Bet Royal, and Cool Cat. Despite them giving me written guarantees that I would be paid within one or two weeks time, that never happened. They also asked me to open up a Firepay account so they could pay me a bit faster. I complied with their wishes.
For almost two years, I had to repeatedly contact Montana Review for their non-compliance with regards to paying me on time. Sometimes Montana Review would help, sometimes not.
Despite me doing everything these casinos asked of me, they just would not pay me on time, or even close to it.
Yet, they still wanted me to make more deposits and for more money while they owed me this money. I refused which seemed to delay my getting paid even further. They tried every stall tactic imaginable.
On 8/7/06, on a random check of my Neteller account, I noticed that $10,000 had been stolen from it and deposited into my Club Player account.
I immediately contacted Club Player who informed me that someone was playing in that account while I was on the phone with them and already had lost almost $1000.
I told them to immediately shut my account down. They then told me that they would have to do their own internal investigation before paying me back, and that the money that this person had lost was gone and they were not going to repay me, even though they acknowledged that it was being played from an IP address in a different country.
I then called Neteller who also did their own internal investigation. They, too, gave me a written statement that absolved me from any wrongdoing, even going so far as to tell me where the theft had come from. For some reason though, when I told them that I was going to file a police report in NYC and would need their cooperation, they refused, and went so far as to close my account down completely which prevented me from furthering my criminal investigation into this theft.
The person at Neteller who was solely responsible for this was named Gina.
In fact, they were going to also withhold the $40, 000 I had in my account there until I retained a criminal attorney in NYC and had him contact Gina. Once she realized that I was about to file criminal charges against Neteller and sue them for both the money that they were withholding from me as well as damages, they did pay me in full, which took over a month for them to do. But, despite me having written acknowledgement absolving me of any wrongdoing, they informed me that they would not allow me to ever open a new Neteller account or help me with my pending criminal investigation against whomever stole my $10,000.
In he meantime, Club Player was not paying me back that money to me, despite me proving to them that I had nothing to do with that theft, as well as submitting the same documents from Neteller stating that fact. All I can say is that I was very lucky that I checked my Neteller account when I did that day, because within another hour, I would have been out the whole $10,000.
Since I was still owed quite a bit of money from all of these casinos, Firepay remained my only option to receive it. Some of those Costa Rican, RTG casinos began dripping and drabbing the money to me into my Firepay account.
On 9/11/06, I received a phone call from Anthony Ferguson at Firepay asking me to prove how I accumulated $61,000 into my Firepay account from only one initial deposit of $750 1 years before. I showed him all of my records proving to him how each and every transaction occurred, which were all with Firepays merchants (casinos). I also showed him numerous e-mails from these casinos asking me to open a Firepay account so they could pay me.
Despite that, without any further warning or investigation, Mr. Ferguson not only closed my account, but RETURNED the $61,000 in it to each casino who had paid me within the past 1 years.
Of course, I had to again retain an attorney (on an hourly basis), who contacted Mr. Ferguson at Firepay. Mr. Ferguson , who initially told my attorney that he would help recoup my money for me from these casinos as long as they paid me in a different method, ended up doing nothing for us.
My attorney then asked me to contact these casinos and ask them to pay me either to my bank account as a bank wire transfer or as a check to his care.
It took me four months for me to get RE-paid this money, and that was again needing numerous e-mails to each casino, RTG, the gaming commission in Costa Rica , and Bryan Bailey at Casinomeister (who was helpful).
It also finally took a direct threat from my attorney that we would be suing them, since we were able to secure exactly who owned these casinos and their addresses to where we could serve them papers. We also were going to sue Neteller and Firepay, but since I did ultimately did get re-paid, that never happened.
I am posting here to warn all of you of what happened to me. I realize that both Neteller and Firepay no longer accept US citizens as customers, but for all of you living in other countries around the world, watch out.
I say this because to this day I believe that both Neteller and Firepay not only were in this together, but also were in cahoots with these Costa Rican, RTG casinos.
I also am sure that if I did not retain competent private counsel, which ended up costing me a couple of thousand dollars, I never would have gotten re-paid any of the $61,000 that Firepay gave back to these casinos, or the $10,000 that somehow ended up at ClubPlayer from my Neteller account, or the $40,000 that was in my Neteller account that Neteller attempted to withhold from me.
I also got stonewalled by both Neteller and club Player with regards to having my local police department do further investigation into the $10,000 theft.
If any on you are concerned about this, I would be happy to correspond with you further, as well as show you written proof that everything I am saying here in 100% truthful and accurate.
In the interim, I would just recommend that you be very careful with regards to doing any business with the casinos I mentioned. That goes the same for any casino that Oliver Curran is involved with, i.e., The Crystal gaming/Doleplex group, or Jack is managing, i.e., Bet Max, BetNet, Slot Fever, etcThese are also all RTG casinos who cheated me out of winnings I legitimately earned, and Montana Review did not step in and get it resolved properly.
If you are curious about what I am stating here, you should check out the numerous threads in the archives of this forum with regards to the people and casinos I am warning you about.
I hope you heed my warnings and advice so you can avoid the same horrible things that happened to me.
Now that the current US government has stopped us from gaming online, needless to say I am no longer involved. But, under the circumstances of what had happened to me, that is actually a good thing.
Be careful.
 
Large sums.

Some of these problems would have been less had you not retained such large sums in the accounts, particularly the $61,000 in Firepay. Had you regularly withdrawan the money as it came in, you would have been hit for a lot less when Firepay pulled the plug.
interestingly, I have received far more into Neteller than I have deposited from Neteller, mainly because casinos have many means to deposit, but fewer to withdraw. I am surprised Firepay questioned this, as it should have been a common issue with many of their players who deposited with cards. What was less common perhaps was leaving the money there over 18 months to accumulate to $61K.
The Neteller issue seems very bad, if Neteller claim you were a victim, why did they suddenly treat you like they had found you out to be a master criminal.
At least now "Neteller" are finally "Cooperating with your local police dept" against their will - that'll teach them to mess players around. Perhaps if Neteller had been more "hands on" when dealing with these kinds of fraud, and cut off crooked merchants, they would be in a lot less trouble now. The fact that they clearly do not care WHO is allowed to accept Neteller so long as they operate a gambling establishment will come back to haunt them when they have to defend the company in court. Examples of Neteller allowing money to flow freely to the crooks as well as the reputable gaming sites is going to count against them.

From the latest threads, they are still at it - players have their Neteller account robbed, and Neteller say "your problem mate".
 
I did not bother to read any farther than this..."I tried to make some money by playing blackjack"

That was your first and biggest mistake.

What were you gonna do? Count cards in an online blackjack game? :D And then expect the casinos to payoff?:lolup:

Here is some advice; If you want to have some fun and have a reasonable chance of winning, play online blackjack....

However, if you want to make money at blackjack... buy a casino.
>>Advice ends

If you want to play Blackjack for Free (just to see if you can really make some money) try this link, Link Removed ( Old/Invalid) .
 
i can only say that if you wanted to make money and treat it as a job then that would lead me to believe this was important to you. not doing any research and signing up with those casinos leads me to believe it couldnt possibly be important. 3 big mistakes...1 playing to make money. 2 no homework done. 3 depositing with those casinos. this is not a flame and i hope it gets resolved for you and,you being a teacher, i hope this might be a good lesson for others.
 
Since there is no workmens compensation with my company, while I was incapacitated I tried to make some money by playing blackjack online.
Not being a smart a**...just trying to figure out how someone disabled, with no income, can leave that kind of money just lying around in so many accounts and not need to use some of it to live on as this was the reason you stated you started playing for?

For a sum like that to be allowed to accumulate to such a large degree without any withdrawals, just doesn't sit right even in my book.
 
Sponge, sad story and unfortunately a lot of players are all too familiar with these and other shady tactics. Just one gigantic headache after another.
 
I'm glad you resolved this and got your money! I never had a problem with NETeller but I never kept much in there.

Also, it's no ones affair why,where, or how much you had in your accounts. The gist of the post was to warn other players and I, for one, very much appreciated it. :thumbsup:
 
Now that the current US government has stopped us from gaming online, needless to say I am no longer involved. But, under the circumstances of what had happened to me, that is actually a good thing.
Be careful.

They can try, but they will never stop USA citizens from gambling online....

Too bad you're from NY. They're the most anal about it, and I think they will soon follow ranks with WA as far as making it a felony to gamble online.
 
I did not bother to read any farther than this..."I tried to make some money by playing blackjack"

That was your first and biggest mistake.

What were you gonna do? Count cards in an online blackjack game? :D And then expect the casinos to payoff?:lolup:

Here is some advice; If you want to have some fun and have a reasonable chance of winning, play online blackjack....

However, if you want to make money at blackjack... buy a casino.
>>Advice ends

If you want to play Blackjack for Free (just to see if you can really make some money) try this link, Link Removed ( Old/Invalid) .

i can only say that if you wanted to make money and treat it as a job then that would lead me to believe this was important to you. not doing any research and signing up with those casinos leads me to believe it couldnt possibly be important. 3 big mistakes...1 playing to make money. 2 no homework done. 3 depositing with those casinos. this is not a flame and i hope it gets resolved for you and,you being a teacher, i hope this might be a good lesson for others.
Read the whole thread before replying to it would be not only smart, it would also give your post's more credibility. Or what I'm trying to say: "Read the whole thread or sh*t up.."

@OP Thanks for your warning, you just remindet me to withdrawl some of my money from neteller
 
I just wonder....

Aren't Neteller accounts insured by the FDIC? Wouldn't that cover the stolen money?

If so, they're double dipping by not giving you your money back that was stolen from the account.
 
For all the people who will post variants of the following:

"WTF were you thinking trying to make money playing blackjack online", please just stop in advance.

You think he hasn't heard this from Bryan, his attorney, firepay, neteller, infinite casino reps, friends, family members, etc already?

The point is, he probably realizes how dumb that was at this point, and chose to swallow his pride and post this as a warning and help for your benefit. Assuming he can back up what he's saying (and I think Bryan can probably speak to the legitimacy of these claims as well) then you should be only thankful he decided to warn you about his experiences.

We've seen a lot of very sketchy behavior on the part of Oliver Curran and Crystal Palace lately. Unfortunately, it seems like they will employ almost any tactic to get your dollar.
 
Read the whole thread before replying to it would be not only smart, it would also give your post's more credibility. Or what I'm trying to say: "Read the whole thread or sh*t up.."

@OP Thanks for your warning, you just remindet me to withdrawl some of my money from neteller

i read the whole thread. my reply was good advice.
 
I did not bother to read any farther than this..."I tried to make some money by playing blackjack"

That was your first and biggest mistake.

QFT .. I guess this notion is why online gambling is such a huge industry
 
Perhaps

QFT .. I guess this notion is why online gambling is such a huge industry

Perhaps it should have read "I tried to make some money playing Blackjack with bonuses"

For a long while this was very possible, and easily done by rote from a chart. It is within the last couple of years that this became pretty much impossible due to advances in the art of convoluted T & C. Even then, it was possible to use the entire bankroll for a single big bet and beat even those T & C. Probably, this player came upon a "bonus whore" site where these casinos would have been the cream of the crop for bonuses, and their dubious nature would hardly have been mentioned by such a site who would gain affiliate payments from players who tried "the system".
There are still a small number of casinos with easily beatable bonuses, but these are the ones most likely to screw you over after using the bonus as a lure.
 
The point is, he probably realizes how dumb that was at this point, and chose to swallow his pride and post this as a warning and help for your benefit.
Yes, this is true, but a paragraph would have done the same job, since he chose to play at a lot of casinos that were rogued.

We are smarter than the average player because we are HERE on the forum and with Bryan's help we keep informed. So, a 10 page warning is a little much, don't you think? I have read 10 page complaints, but never that long of a "warning".

Yes, I am being a butthead, but common sense tells anyone, that this was more of a "complaint", at least to me and if he chose to play at some of these shady places and wants sympathy....which is the way I was reading it...the poor me, I got ripped off thing....the rest is history....
 
i would never leave that much money in neteller but regardless of the amount it doesnt matter. i too have been unpaid by casino and bryan helped me. i did not know of this forum until i did some searching,, i was playing at different casino not knowing if they were reputable or not. im glad i found this site, and bryan ( he got my money for me) . now i only play at the credeited ones listed.
 
Read the whole thread before replying to it would be not only smart, it would also give your post's more credibility. Or what I'm trying to say: "Read the whole thread or sh*t up.."
Why waste my time? He/she could have put it all in one sentence, instead of one very long and hard to read lump of text.

"I was stupid and gave my money to bad guys and Bryan helped me get it back."

I been around the gambling business for a very long time and anytime anyone wants to try to make money gambling they need a good whack of common sense upside their head...
 
I been around the gambling business for a very long time and anytime anyone wants to try to make money gambling they need a good whack of common sense upside their head...

Oh really?
When are you gonna come & whack me then? :cool:

(Though I do admit, common sense is one of the main factors in consistent profiteering)
 
From what he wrote in another thread that Sponge wrote, it sounds like he turned $750.00 into 60k. Why is everyone calling him stupid for thinking he could possibly make some money playing cards online? Sounds like he made alot... and then some.
 
From what he wrote in another thread that Sponge wrote, it sounds like he turned $750.00 into 60k. Why is everyone calling him stupid for thinking he could possibly make some money playing cards online? Sounds like he made alot... and then some.

smart enough to win all that money and then leave it ALL in netteler without taking it out? please....
 
I just wonder....

Aren't Neteller accounts insured by the FDIC? Wouldn't that cover the stolen money?

If so, they're double dipping by not giving you your money back that was stolen from the account.

winbig:

FDIC, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. US Federal Government insurance for each deposit, up to $100,000.00, deposits for American financial institutions.
You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.
This led to the savings and loan debacle / scandal of the early eighties.

The Bush Crime Family was directly profited from this $1.4 TRILLION dollar scandal. The 'Don' George Bush Sr. and his 'Underbosses' George Jr., Neil, and Jeb Bush.

Some info. on the Bush Crime Family involvement in the Savings & Loan Scandal.
You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.


NETeller deposits are insured by the FSA:
You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

I think(?) they only insure the UK depositors against fraud?
 
Thanks for the warning and glad you got your money back. Hey, someone stole from you and no one deserves that. Ever. Hope you made a full recovery and I hope your lengthy but interesting warning helps others. :)
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Meister Ratings

Back
Top