888 scam or legit?

I got an email from allegedly 888 - and I will also get in touch with them - regarding a money transfer, which did take place. But they want a scan of my credit card, seems suspicious....

any Ideas? email below.

Dear xxx,

This is Russell M from the Operations Department at Cassava (Gibraltar) Ltd. Cassava Enterprises manage operational services for 888poker.

888poker wants to again thank you for choosing us as your online poker destination, to ensure your safety and the security of our site, we need you to provide us with a few extra details about yourself so that we can secure your 888poker account.

Recently we contacted you regarding our obligation to confirm your age with us after your account was credited with a Money Transfer from another player at our online poker room. ( I do not remember this!!)

To verify your account details please send in scanned copies or photos of documents that can verify your age.

These documents include;

- a scan or photo of your government issued ID, Passport or Driver's License
- a scan or photo of a recent utility bill showing your name and address
- a scan or photo of a credit card in your name that you wish to use on your account.

Please check the images before uploading, to ensure that all the details are legible.

These documents can be sent to us by you uploading them through the cashier on our site. To do this please log on and then access the cashier through the lobby and select the Tools option. You will then be guided through a simple process to upload the requested documentation. The uploaded file can be scanned photocopy or photo of the original document. Many players choose to take a photo from their phone for easy access and upload. Please ensure all photos are legible.

Please note that to ensure the security of your documents we have implemented powerful security policies, rules and technical measures to protect the financial security of our members. However, please make sure that you block the middle 8 numbers of any credit/debit card uploaded and also block the CVV (3 digit code) on the back of such cards. If you have chosen to take a photo of your card, you are only required to send us a picture that displays the last 4 digits of your card.

If you have any further queries with regards to our requests please review first our Frequently Asked Questions, located on the Contact Us tab of the website. Here you will find all the information on why we routinely request documents, how it is possible to send these documents, and the type of documents that we will accept. All these questions and more are answered by typing in the relevant key words to the Frequently Asked Questions search option.

Please refrain from opening further accounts until this issue is resolved.
We have implemented effective security policies, rules and technical measures to protect the financial security of our members. I would like to emphasize that we appreciate your continued cooperation and patience.

I apologise for the inconvenience caused.

Regards,
Russell
Operations Department
Cassava (Gibraltar) Ltd.
operations@cassava.net

888 are legit AFAIK, they do a lot of advertising over here in UK.

Definitely send them an email and found out if they really sent you this email - never heard of a company ask for a scan of a credit card before.

I think it's legit as it's very similar to the verification procedure I went through when opening my account there. The only worrying thing is that you don't remember the money transfer from the other player.

They also stress to black out the middle digits of the card and the 3 digit CVV which if it was a scam they would need.

888 is a long-established site and definitely legit. It`s not unknown for sites to ask for scans of ID documents. As Tangerine says, the fact that they ask you to black out key info which a criminal would want is significant.

You should certainly ask them for details of this transfer that you don`t recall. That seems odd.

If you're not aware of someone 'transferring funds' to your account then I would 100% assume it's a scam! (btw... 'no' I didn't transfer funds to your acc't. bud... but I will if you want.... don't worry, I wouldn't ship you bucks on there anonymously... I'd want FULL recognition (& credit) of course.

That looks kinda scary Fletchdad.

The bad grammar in this email makes me think it's a scam. But as others have said, poker sites sometimes do request scans of ID and credit cards. Email their legit email or even phone them to verify that this is for real. Or maybe just forward the email to their security address and have their security people verify it.

There actually was someone who did a transfer, sorry, I was unclear what I meant. In my bold statement, I meant I did not receive any other email, since they - 888 - stated they had already contacted me, thats what I meant, as I cannot find any other email from them, and I dont have a spam folder (due to work, a lot of emails show up as spam) so I have all my emails. But I sent them an email asking for a verification, and I overlooked the part about blacking out my info on the credit card. But I have never used a credit card with them so I found that weird.

But it IS info about a transfer that did occur, so it is probably OK, I was just real unhappy about the credit card thing since I have not used one with them ever.

I will wait to see what they reply, I forwarded the email to them, and explained my suspicion, so I will post again here when I get a reply.

Thanks for the help everyone!

I sent them an email, and got an automated response. I have had security checks before, and had to send stuff, ID,, proof of address and so on, but never a scan of a credit card. Plus, why would I need to send this after a $10 transfer form one player to another on the site? No withdrawal or deposit was made.....

The other thing that made me suspicious was the email address of the sender, as well as the spelling for "apologise" - dont they have spell checkers?? The address given by 888 on the website is

operations@cassava.net

but the sender of the email I got is this:

" (Cassava - Operations Department)" <feedback@mailer.888poker.com>

Cassava is ok, but it is a different email address from the one given at 888.

I will post when I hear from 888.

I receive tons of scam emails claiming to be from Twitter, Blizzard, Neteller etc all asking for login details and stuff like that which have legit email addresses like admin@twitter.com - email spoofing seems to be pretty easy.

It doesnt sound like you need to scan the credit card. They are asking for proof of age. They gave you a list of documents that can be used for such purposes. Scan in your ID and a utility bill and upload it securely on their website.

The credit card is just in that list because sometimes they would want a copy of a credit card which was used to deposit.

I would never scan my credit card for anyone, especially if it was not to be used at the site. GL!

If you actually look through the advanced details of the email it isnt that easy, but you can put anything you want as your From / Reply To address very simply, then you can hide another email address in CC or the like so when you reply to admin@twitter.com it also sends the reply to whatever@whatever.com.

OK, I will post the response I got. I guess it is legit, I still dont understand the credit card thing, as I have never deposited. But I guess it is true that if I block out the middle 8 digits, there is now way it can be abused.

Here is the email I just got:


I am Tamala A from the Operations Department at Cassava Enterprises (Gibraltar) Ltd. which is part of the 888.com group of companies.

I am contacting you in regards to your 888poker account with username "Fletchdad."

I understand your concerns about the previous sent to you by my colleague. However, please note that the operations department administers risk management for all casinos owned and/or operated by Cassava Enterprises (Gibraltar) Ltd.

Since, we operate over the Internet; we do not have the ability to serve our members face-to-face. Therefore, we have to find other ways of ensuring we only have legitimate people using our sites. If we are unsuccessful in verifying a member’s credit card with their issuing bank, then we have to try an alternative.

This is therefore why we have asked for documents, so we may cross-reference them to your registration details.

I can assure you that we do run a safe and secure site in regards to accepting such sensitive documents as the ones requested of you. We utilize sophisticated RSA public/private key encryption technology to ensure that all sensitive data is transferred securely over the Internet.

We have requested you to verify your account as this is a part of our security policy, please note it is stated on our site that we reserve the right to have our player's verify their account once we see it necessary for them to do so.

Moreover, as stated, you should block out some of the data on these documents if you are concerned about fraudulent use. For the credit card copies, you should block out the middle eight digits on the front of the card and the security CVV code on the back of the card. We will accept the first and last four digits on the front of the card, the last four digits on the back of the card and the authorized signature. With the selected areas blocked out, there is no way anyone can use your card fraudulently.

John, I feel that I should point out that it is openly posted on our website that, we may request documentation from you at anytime. This is something which you agree to when registering with 888poker.

It may however; help to know that since we have been in business, we have never had a breach of our security and no unauthorized or illegal use of the information which is provided to us.

Providing the documents at this point in your casino life will allow for your 888poker account status to be raised. This in turn will increase your deposit limits and raise your cashout limit. I hope that I have explained our policies clearly to you. Should you have further concerns regarding our cashout policy, please visit the 888poker website at the following address:

http://www.888poker.com/banking/cashingout/cashout-policy.htm

We look forward to assisting you further. Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

Kind regards,
Tamala A.

Operations Department
Cassava Enterprises (Gibraltar) Ltd.
operations@cassava.net

They are giving you options, you don't need to give them a copy of your credit card. You are making it harder than it needs to be.

lol at me, I missed that!!!

Thanks!

It's not that bad.

Apologise, apologize. It's either.

[quote=Swear Engine;1694974

Apologise, apologize. It's either. [/quote]


Hmmmm, not sure whether I need to apologise or apologize......

Either way, I am sending the documents to 888 as it seems I got all bothered over nothing.....

888 are 100% legit, they've been around for ages and have ads on TV with that knobhead cricketer Shane Warne.

Cassava enterprises is the company that runs the 888 network which includes 888.com, Littlewoods poker and Luckacepoker.

So I emailed 888 about my reservations, and got a reply that they need to verify my identity, so I figured it must be legit after all, and sent documents and got this email today, which shows me all my worries were unfounded. Just a normal ID check. I only thought it was weird cause I had never deposited, but maybe since I had someone transfer me money (someone shipped me $s so I could enter an MTT there, I shipped back on another site) they wanted to make sure not double accounts or whatever, I dont know, but it was all on the up and up.
email:

"I am Latoya L. from the Operations Department at Cassava Enterprises (Gibraltar) Ltd. which is part of the 888.com group of companies.

I am contacting you in regards to your 888poker account with username "Fletchdad."

Thank you for recently submitting your document via our "Upload Your Documents Feature". Please be advised, these have been reviewed and checked in accordance of the Security Check requirements.

All details have been successfully cross-referenced to your account details and verified. In light of this your Deposit and Cash Out limits have been upgraded and any remaining restrictions have been lifted from your account.

Can I take this opportunity to thank you for complying with our security checks. I hope that you can appreciate that these precautions are for the mutual benefit of both ourselves and our members.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding. Please feel free to contact us whenever we can be of assistance.

Kind regards,

Latoya L.
Operations Department
Cassava Enterprises (Gibraltar) Ltd.
operations@cassava.net "