Celtic Casino - 2 big issues in only three days

[Khuzev]

Hello there,

I'm new to that quality board and I would like to share with you the bad week I've experienced as a gambler at Celtic Casino with my account : on one hand, a stolen money incident and on another, a lock of my account.

1) Three days ago now, I had the scary experience of watching my balance being reduced more and more until reaching 0 eur while I was sat at live dealer roulette, without I could do anything to stop it except to alert the pitboss in the live chat box.

After the creation of a Live ticket incident, the support team answered me that my game history showed I lost the disappeared money at baccarat, while I never played at that game during the given session.

I then sent another e-mail with full details about how the things happened :

*********************************

----- Original Message -----
From: xxx xxx
To: support@celticcasino. com
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2011 9:15 AM GMT+2
Subject: Celtic Casino - in order to help your technical support (Live Ticket LC0950 and more)

account : xxx

Hello,

In order to help your technical support to investigate the better and the faster the "money stolen issue" I've been the victim of earlier today while I was playing at your online casino, you will find below the summary of the events as they happened.

- I logged in to my Celtic Casino account earlier today at about 3:50 am GMT+2, and I went straight to live dealer roulette low limit, with my 305 euros balance There was a period of maintenance but the game resumed about 5 minutes after.

- at a given moment (I don't remember exactly at what time), I noticed that my bankroll moved from 302,50 eur (or 303,50 eur, something like that) to 252,50 eur.  I immediately typed several times "pitboss" at the live dealer roulette chat to explain him the problem, but I noticed the right amount was displayed again, so I wrote "all is fine" (or something like that) in the chat box.

- however, when that situation occured again just a few minutes after, I asked again to the pitboss to pay attention to it, explaining I was watcing my balance making strange money moves.  Another time, the balance seemed to display the good amount of money, but it wasn't the case, as I had more than expected (325 eur instead of 300 or 305 eur).  I prefered that situation at the previous one (to have more than less), but pitboss suggested me to close the window and to come back. 

- I logged off and then logged in about 1 or 2 minutes after, and I noticed my balance was still at 320 (between 320 and 325 eur, I don't remember well).

- I went back to live dealer roulette low limit, where the game worked properly for several minutes, until I noticed with scare that my balance had again problems : this time, the money was disappearing faster than before, so I "screamed" to pitboss in the live chat box.

- He informed me that the support didn't notice anything abnormal in my session, and learnt me my game history showed I played baccarat too, something which would explain the money moves your service tells.

- At the same time, I was horrified by how fast my bankroll was being destroyed while I couldn't do anything to prevent it, leaving me at the end with only 0,25 eur.  I was still chatting with pitboss along.

As I wrote it again several times, the only game I played today has been live dealer roulette at low limit, nothing else, I didn't enter any other room, and I don't understand how my supposed game history could show actions I didn't do, unless someone managed to play with my bankroll at the time while I'm connected at your site, which is a very big security concern then, or maybe someone from Celtic Casino is deliberately stealing my money, it's possible too, I don't know. . .

I already alerted several people or sites about that horrible experience (Visionnary Gaming, online casino live dealer games review sites, forum), because it's absolutely unthinkable such a thing happens to a customer.

Now, I hope that you resolve the issue very quickly and give me my stolen money back.

Thanks.

xxx xxx

----- Original Message -----
From: xxx xxx
To: support@celticcasino. com
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2011 6:03 AM GMT+2
Subject: Re: About your Live Ticket LC0950 - Celtic Casino - STOLEN MONEY

Hello,

You will find below a copy of the e-mail I sent everywhere I could, to alert people about what happens at Celtic Casino.

I demand that situation to be cleared the fastest possible, and the money stolen given back into my account (once again, I only played at the live dealer roulette low limit, and what happened there are the only winings / losses which must count).

There is probably an important security issue at your site (how such a situation could happen then ?), but that's not my problem, what I want is my money back.

xxx xxx
(account : xxx)

----------------------------------------------------------

Dear Sir,

I hope you could help me because I have a very big problem with Celtic Casino. 

I've been a regular live dealer roulette player there for about 2 months there, without any problem until today.  Today, while I was playing roulette again, I saw my balance moving with amounts I didn't play, until at the end only 0. 25 eur remained (I had 305 eur when I started the session at about 3:50 am GMT+2). 

I tried to alert pitboss, support, but they told me I was playing at baccarat and lost that money there, while I never went on baccarat or on any other game than live dealer roulette at low limit !

Could you understand how I feel ? I'm a small player, I was happy to play at Celtic Casino and such a thing happens.  I tell the truth, I alert everyone about the money which was disappearing from my account, and they tell me I'm responsible !

There are only two explanations : or they stole that money from my account (difficult to believe but who knows. . . ), or someone is able to play with my account at the same time I'm connected, and in that case as I explained to Celtic Casino support, they should be able to check IP adresses or something, and it would mean too there is a big issue in the security of their Celtic Casino site (my PC is perfectly safe and secured with up-to-date firewall and antivirus and I've never seen my accounts hacked). 

What could I do now ? I really tell the truth, and I'm deeply disgusted by what I'm living now. 

Thank you. 

Regards,

xxx xxx
(Celtic Casino account : xxx)

*********************************

However at the same time, becoming worried of getting caught in a trap and that my claim wouldn't be taken seriously, I decided to make the issue public contacting not only Visionnary iGaming but websites related to online casino and above all posting my story in a forum dedicated to roulette and monitored by a customer representative of Celtic Casino (VLS Roulette. com : hxxp: vlsroulette. com/live-roulette-casinos/celtic-casino-very-big-issue-stolen-money/ => whole discussion there ).

[Khuzev]

I guess it my action paid off as the results were impressive, the problem being resolved positively in less than 24h.  Here is the e-mail of resolution I got from Celtic Casino :

*********************************

----- Original Message -----
From: Celtic Support
To: 'xxx xxx'
Cc: 'Celtic Support'
Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2011 12:29 AM GMT+2
Subject: RE: Celtic Casino - in order to help your technical support (Live Ticket LC0950 and more)

Hello xxx,

We have now had ample time to research this issue and have identified what happened. 

Explanation:

An individual from a Canadian IP address obtained your login credentials, logged in and maliciously spent your balance on live baccarat.  We can confirm that there were no breaches into our system whereby any player information was compromised â€ââ,¬Å" as far as we can tell this individual in Canada obtained just your user login from an unknown source â€ââ,¬Å" possibly access to your email account, but it is very hard for us to speculate.  We have blocked the IP address range which the culprit was utilizing.


Observations/Comments:

1.  As with most online sites, our policy is to put the responsibility of protecting login credentials onto the user and we rarely, if ever, make exceptions to this policy.   

2.  Given that you have been a registered member since December 23rd, 2010 and your history of playing with CelticCasino we can confirm that you:

a.  Only play live roulette.  Large live baccarat action is not consistent with your playing profile. 

b.  You utilize the same French IP address each and every time you play.  A login from Canada is very unusual and again not consistent with your profile.   

Based on these observations, our management has decided to make an exception and support your claim. 

Course of Action:

1.  We have changed your password on your behalf to: xxx

2.  We have refunded all baccarat losses, totaling âââ,¬Å¡Ã,¬333. 50.  Attached you will find your detailed transaction history showing you exactly what was lost on the baccarat table.

3.  As a sign of goodwill, CelticCasino has credited your account with an additional âââ,¬Å¡Ã,¬50. 00 which are completely free and clear of any bonus terms and conditions.  In other words, these are real funds for you to do as you please. 

4.  A total of âââ,¬Å¡Ã,¬384. 00 is now available on your account.


We hope that CelticCasino has demonstrated to you that we are a reputable operation which will always put you, the customer, first.  We thank you for your patronage and hope that this resolution either meets or exceeds your expectations.  If it does, we would greatly appreciate if you updated your forum postings stating that the CelticCasino Customer Service team did resolve your issue to your satisfaction in under 24 hours. 

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us. 


Regards,

Roy Schools

Customer Support

CelticCasino. com

*********************************

My own observations about that resolution now :

- My PC, my browsing on the web, my messengers, my mail user agent are full secured, with antivirus and firewall up to date.

- I have a lot of accounts on the internet, and I had never ever suffered any hacking, my PC is protected and I'm very cautious.

- If the guy had managed to get my login and passwords elsewhere than by the Celtic Casino site when I was connected, I wonder why the issue of the money disappearing only happened when I was connected, and not when I was offline too.

- The solution offered satisfies me throughout.  The case has been resolved in less than 24h by Celtic Casino, especially thanks to the action lead on this forum and to all of its participants.  I have to add that a customer representative of Visionnary iGaming left me a message on my phone to explain me the situation around 4 hours before I received the e-mail of resolution from Celtic Casino.

- My first idea is to withdraw the money and leave Celtic Casino, but I think maybe it would be better to go on playing there, to see and to report if everything is right now.


The main reason why I made this issue public was I had the feeling Celtic Casino support didn't want to take my claim seriously at the beginning : after my initial exchange with the pitboss in the live chat box which resulted in the creation of a live ticket, Celtic Casino support assured me that I played live baccarat and lost the money there, and only recommended me to change my password.

About that last point, I'm a bit surprised it's not possible to change our password automatically from our personal space at Celtic Casino website : it has to be done manually, sending an e-mail to the support.

After careful consideration, I decided that I will go on playing at Celtic Casino live dealer roulette, because after all what happened, I couldn't imagine there would be an issue again. 

[Khuzev]

As I told you in my previous post, I decided to resume my gaming at Celtic Casino, my confidence in them being renewed with their reassuring communication.

Yesterday I played a 5 hours long live dealer roulette session, with a bit of success (my balance was a bit bigger at the end than at the beginning), and nothing wrong I could notice occured during it.

However, today, when I tried to log into my Celtic Casino account with my username and my password, I had the bitter surprise to see another issue happens again after the one I experienced earlier in the week with the stolen money : this time my account seems locked, because I get the message "your username and/or password is invalid".

I immediately sent an e-mail to the Celtic Casino and Visionnary iGaming supports to have explanations about that new incident, which I made public again, here and on VLS Roulette forum too (hxxp: vlsroulette. com/live-roulette-casinos/celtic-casino-another-issue/).

I try to be optimistic, I want to believe I can have confidence in them and in the fact that the problems I've experienced this week aren't created intentionnaly : why would they act this way with me ? what would be the aim in such an action ?

No, I want to believe all this will be resolved quickly and in a positive way.

I keep you up to date with it.

[mr.ore]

Maybe you had too simple password, and someone managed to guess it. Another option is that your PC is not as safe as you thing. Even an updated system with latest antivirus can be compromised, you might have keylogger installed, or some application you use might be keylogging what you type in. Also do not store your password in email or web browser, change it to something weird and write it down on a paper, then type it always you want to log in.

You might consider using portable linux distribution, best is one that you install on USB flash drive and let computer boot from it, running from DVD is also possible, but it is annoyingly slow in my opinion.

Good one is this distro: link:://:.slax.org/

Only problem is that if you remove USB flash drive before computer shutdown, it might have problems booting to your settings and you have to reinstall it, but you can always run slax in safe mode. It is not problem if you are just going to gamble in firefox web browser, because if you break it, you can just reinstall it again. There is a directory called home, where all your personal setting are saved, so you might backup it before reinstall.

[Khuzev]

@ mr. ore
Thank you for your message.
I always create "complicated" passwords and I don't save them in browsers.

Moreover, I don't see the point in hacking an online casino account where my identity has been proven (documents sent, checked and approved) and my e-mail address registered : how the guy would do to withdraw the money in that case ?

About not mentionning a password in an e-mail, it's impossible with Celtic Casino as the only way to change it is to ask it by sending an e-mail to the support.  However, I deleted the sent and received e-mails where it was written.

Anyway, I'm still waiting for explanations about the reason why my account has been locked.

[mr.ore]

Maybe they found that some of their staff is responsible for that, and so they temporarily blocked your account because they are investigating, what happened. It happened in online casinos already, I thing there was some case with staff cheting in online poker. Who knows what happened, I wish you that it is resolved well and you get your account back.

I can't see point why would someone play with someone other's money, only as an evil joke, or because he like the feeling of having control over the account. If it is some of their people, then he might have been thinking that he would play with someone other's money and win, then he could withdraw them without noticing. If you don't see a change in your account, you would not suspect anyone.

If it weren't confirmed that it was attack from Canada, then it might be possible that after update their database went wrong somehow, and your account was updated with someone's else play. If they erronously changed some SQL commands in their software, it could happened. Maybe some player from Canada logged with his name and password, played Baccarat as usual, but did not notice money on his account, because he was just a gambler and did not know, and it somehow changed your account. It would mean that two people in database had same identifier because of an error. If they update clien't account money relatively in a way that they add or substract won/loss money on an account, it could happened to two accounts, and that player would not even notice. Maybe they made an excuse like that in order to not disclose that after an update error occured. I wonder what would be better in such a situation though, I would prefer them being honest that. But now I am just making things...

[iggiv]

i guess some security issue here. Sure they won't do it by purpose to restrict your access.
Someone was able to to get to your account somehow i think...

[Khuzev]

@ mr. ore
I see that you have a lot of computer and website working knowledge, which makes you think to various possibilities about what really happened with my account.  A kind of interference between accounts could explain the money disappearing issue, but whatever it was, I guess the rule is not to communicate about what really happened but to give a credible explanation.

@ iggiv
All this is very annoying but. . .  I've just tried to log in and it's working now !

The money is still there, I'm relieved but I'm waiting for their explanation too, which I will report and comment here.

[iggiv]

even top secret files get hacked somewhere. u had bad luck, bud, your account was hacked somehow, it does not mean casino itself problematic...i wish u to have good luck playing though...and those issues they should resolve i guess. Of course u have to let them know what's goin on, for sure they have some security IT people to take care about it

[Khuzev]

The reason given is the "IT department perfomed a unscheduled upgrade to the servers and some users were not able to login during this period". 

It's something it can happen, it's just bad luck that I was affected by that kind of maintenance. 

[iggiv]