Security

How to Win at Online Poker

Don't get excited, the method's illegal...

By Alexandru Dumitru, Security News Editor

4th of September 2007, 09:37 GMT

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This article is about the method cyber-criminals use to get a lot of money via online poker. It is nowhere near legal, and I'm only going to describe this vaguely so that you get the basic idea and learn how to watch out. Here's how they do it:

First they go and infect some people with malware, but not just any type.

They use the kind of viruses that will make one's PC part of a botnet. Also, the soft installed on one's computer will act as a bot that plays online poker. So, this bot does not harm the victim's computer, but minds its own business, just playing online whenever the hacker wants it to.

The second thing needed is some data. I guess you've all heard of phishing by now, and know what the methods are. They will have to get names and credit card numbers and all that is needed to open an online paying account. Of course, they will use those accounts for gambling.

So, now that he has all the "material" what does the crook do? Well, it assigns bots with gambling accounts and makes them enter a poker room. Then, he or another human player enters the room as well. Of course, the bots suck at poker and generally lose. Then the money simply get transferred to the crook's account. Pretty clever, huh? Don't even think about it! This is illegal!

In any case, this is only bound to work with small gambling sites, as the large famous ones always scan for bots and have some great security measures installed to avoid such things from happening. You can recognize a bot easily, if it always loses to only one player or by the fact that... well... it does not act like a human. They do not chat in poker rooms and when PM-ed they respond automatically with the same thing.

Bot-gaming like this is dangerous and illegal, so if you see a bot please report it. You will do a person a lot of good!

TAGS:

poker | virus | bot | botnet | scam

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