I did the $50+$50 free money option on ultimate bet. The money was delivered to my account as promised. Within a day or two (not sure I remember the exact timing), they froze my account. I eventually was told to contact "Security" at an 877 phone number.

"Security" then said that I had been banned because my IP address had been linked with fraudulent activity in the past. They explained that I have been permanently blacklisted and that they will be keeping the money. (As an aside, they informed me that their "user agreement" authorizes them to do this -- I asked what would have happened if I had deposited tens of thousands of dollars and they suggested that they would have kept it).

The thing is, I have a contiguous block of eight fixed IP addresses from Comcast Business. It seems unlikely that Comcast pulls those addresses from a general pool of "unwashed" floating IP addresses, and also fairly unlikely that I was so unlucky as to have received the former IP address of some business-owning poker-fraudster. Of course, it is possible that Comcast has re-purposed the IP's and that they were used as floating IP's at some point in the past (or even that they really were used for fraud by some previous business customer). But I doubt it. After all, if my IP is blacklisted, why did they only take action against me once the "free money" went into my account?

What seems more likely is that they are doing this for some other reason related to my having used the free-money offer, and using this "IP linked to fraud" thing as an excuse or cover-story. If you think about it, "your IP address was used for fraud" is a plausible explanation for 99% of the people out there with floating IP addresses. It is also conveniently totally impossible for the other party (in this case, me) to verify, disconfirm or defend against.

Anyhow, after some searching I don't see lots of reports of this happening to other people, so I don't know what to think. To be clear, I don't suspect PokerSource of any wrong-doing. Maybe I should post a poll about it?

Regardless, if they are telling the truth about their reasons, that is even worse. That would mean that every time anyone with a floating IP address (iow: most players) logs into UltimateBet, they are gambling their entire bankroll that their IP address does not happen to be on their blacklist.

Annoyed, and very glad I didn't deposit my own money at UB,

-gmt

Hi myosisok,

This is unfortunate yet UB would not close an account unless they had really good reasons. I've sent an email to our UB affiliate manager to get the whole scoop on your account. Once I have more information I'll let you know.

Thanks for looking into this. However, with all due respect, I must beg to differ about "really good reasons" since I know for a fact that I have not done anything wrong (of course, it's hard to prove, so I understand if you might be skeptical).

The only thing that I can think of that may have set off alarm bells for them is that I used my business address which, although not a PO Box, is a rented mailbox.

Regardless, they should have notified me of their concerns -- whatever they were -- and given me some chance to respond before they simply blacklisted me and took my bankroll.

It's a small amount of money and, given UB's history, I am not holding my breath for them to get religion and suddenly start behaving ethically. This, after all, is why I went with the IB promotion instead of taking advantage of their fairly generous deposit bonus.

But, this is all a matter between UB and me. I really do appreciate any efforts you might make to motivate them to be more responsive, but I'm not holding my breath.

-gmt

Hi myosisok,

I understand your point of view and yes they should have let you know about the situation before banning your account. I received a reply from our UB affiliate manager last night and it seems like your account was closed because of your IP address but your account is now being reviewed again with a slight chance that it could be reinstated again. I'll keep you posted as I know learn about the situation.


EDIT...

I just heard back from UB and your account will be reinstated but at the time of depositing and cashing out you will need to provide some documents to the security department.

What may have helped is that I decided, based on the poor grammar in their form letter, that maybe my first e-mail was beyond the language skills of whoever was on the other end to understand. I sent them another letter that very clearly ("as if to a child") stated my willingness to play nice and provide them with any information they might need.

So far I still am not able to log in to the site and have received nothing but two copies of the same cordial-but-semi-literate form-letter, basically telling me to go fly a kite -- but I trust your sources much better than mine and expect that eventually they will reinstate me as you say.

Thanks very much for making the effort to make those inquiries! Without that extra push I doubt I would have been able to convince them to change their tune without sending snail-mail. I'll update this thread as this saga continues

-gmt

myosisok,

The first thing you need to do for your account to be reinstated is to contact their security department and find out what documents you need to send them.

Of greater concern to me is the fact that my IP address really does seem to have been linked with fraudulent activity in the past. That suggests that I will have this problem at other card rooms (so far I have only tried UB). I could wire up the Windows box I am using to come from a different IP address, although all my IP's are contiguous so this might not help.

I am tempted to leave the IP the same, and try another popular site just to see if I encounter similar problems. The only trick would be to pick one that I don't particularly mind being banned from.

10-4, I'll do that. Their phone system is kind of terrible and tends to disconnect me, but I'll just go to my "happy place" and try to be a good sport about it

Well, good luck with the account. And if you need further assistance do not hesitate to use our customer support http://www.pokersource.com/help/

or post it using this link; posting.php?mode=newtopic&f=15

Well, sure enough, they took my information (their needs were quite reasonable) and re-enabled my account. Clearing my bonus and cashing out some or all of my bankroll will of course be a better test of whether or not they are truly "over it," but I will need to pyramid my tiny bankroll quite a bit before this becomes feasible without "stupid" levels of risk or a huge investment of time.

In the meanwhile, I am enjoying the distraction and successfully procrastinating my taxes ... yay!

Thanks again,

-gmt

You're welcome! Glad to head this all worked out Good luck at the tables!