Account 'Compromised' William Hill

[LucasChief5]

Hi all.

New to the forum. Had a quick look around and seemed one of the most lively.

Tried searching the discussions for my query so apologies if it's already around.

I've been a member of William Hill for a few years and only bet on football games. I have a bet most nights or every other night on average. Small stakes the norm. Anyway, last Saturday (14th March 2015) night I had done my bets for Sunday's football games (4 various bets) and had £30 remaining in my account. I went to do another small bet on Sunday morning and I couldn't log in and was told to contact Customer Services.

I spoke to Livechat and was told my account had been suspended until further notice. I didn't get told why so phoned in and was informed that their notes said I was suspended as it looked like my account had been 'compromised' and it had been sent to the 'Cyber' Department for an investigation. The gentleman thought that their was numerous log-ins from different IP addresses but said they had no more information but someone should phone me back that day.

Well 8/9 days later and I'm none the wiser. I have had many discussions via livechat or by phoning in for an update but I've had the phone cut dead on me while someone tried to 'find out' for me, I've been told I am not allowed to speak direct to the 'Cyber' department and they are not allowed to give me a Managers name to speak to. I have been told by one lady that she would just nip to Security to get my account back up and running and would phone me back in 10 minutes. Neither ever happened.

The best answer I had was last Thursday by a man who said that it was likely my original account would be closed and I would have another account set up once the investigation was over and any monies would be transferred to my new account but he couldn't give me a timescale as he also wasn't able to speak to the Cyber people. One of the 4 bets that I had on the go the previous sunday came in so I should have £80 on my account but I have not been able to see the evidence due to the account being locked.

Just wondered if anyone had any other ideas of what to do next. How long should such an investigation take? Is it right I am not allowed to speak to a manager or relevant department?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers

 

[yourmum]

Seems very strange that they would decide your account had been compromised from logins only. Unless money had been suspiciously moved around and bet from these different IP addresses then maybe they would have done something.

How did you log on to your William Hill account? Did you use the same connection or did you log on via mobile in different locations??? Logging in from mobile may account for the multiple IP addresses within a short space of time.

Also sounds odd they would open a new account - surely a standard password + security question change would be the correct procedure as even if they did close your old account and open a new one, this could compromise you further under multi accounting terms. They would still keep old records for that reason.

A few other questions - which may help me diagnose / give advice on this situation.

Are you in the UK? If so where abouts?

Have you travelled and logged in from abroad?

What were your bets (I.e what matches / markets and stakes)?? I'm asking this as they could be fobbing you off while they investigate suspect games, regardless of whether you are involved or not.

Do you ever use a VPN?

Is your account verified?

I've never heard of a case like this before, and usually when a bookie cites a security issue, that's all the information they give. If you answer my questions I can give you some advice on what to do / give my opinion on what I would do if it was me in your situation. Keep us updated!

 

[LucasChief5]

Hi there YourMum. Thanks for great response. Just setting off for work shortly so will respond to this when back about 4.30. Thanks a lot.

 

[LucasChief5]

Hi there,

Again thanks for response.
I log onto my account using my desktop at my home address and my mobile phone only. I live near Leeds and have not been much further than that in the last month.
I had done my bets for the sunday (15th March) on the Saturday night from my desktop at home and logged back in sunday morning to find the problem.
I have not travelled abroad in last few years and the furthest I have been in the last 6 weeks is Leicester where I used my mobile for bets.

My bets are only football and random. For example one of the bets I did Saturday night for the next day was a treble which was over 2.5 goals in 3 matches. It was £4 and the winnings were (should be) £51 so odds were approx 6/5, 11/8 and evens.
I do a lot of both to score bets and in the last six weeks I have won an eight fold both to score at odds of 473/1. I only put a £1 on and it was random (i.e Montpellier v Lille at 6/4, a second division Spanish game etc and six others. All I do is bring up the full list of the days games on the both to score coupon and choose 6 or 8 games of odds of evens or better. I have won a few 6 folds over the last couple of years but this was my biggest odds and winnings.
I then won £120 the next day on a similar both to score bet )6 games from £2) and I have won maybe 8 or 9 other bets since but mainly a mix of team goals. For example, Arsenal over 2.5 goals, Barcelona over 3.5 goals, Porto over 1.5 etc.

I have won about £1500 over the last 6 weeks but I must have spent about £500-£600 since then on similar bets so it's not like I have won a fortune. I'm still probably down since the start of the season (August).

I never use a VPN (I just had to google it!)

I was told on the sunday I should receive a call on the same day, then I was told on the Monday it could be 3-5 working days and since then I believe I am being fobbed off. The last verbal conversation was with the most helpful person on Thursday evening who said that it was likely a new account would have to be set up and he would send a message to the security people to try and speed it up and said he was hopeful it would be finalised by Friday evening.
The most frustration thing is the fact I am told I cannot speak to the department or a manager but to be rest assured it would be sorted but then told they cannot give me a timescale. I have not receive a single phone call since the event so just need to know what options I have available.

Thanks a lot and sorry if I haven't answered all the questions.

 

[Trevrizent]

I've never heard of a case like this either. If William Hill believed that your account had been hacked or there had been repeated attempts to hack your account, then, as Yourmum says, the standard procedure would be to lock your account temporarily and ask you to contact their customer service team. On doing so, you would be asked certain security questions and would then be issued with a temporary password that you could use to log into your account again and reset your own password, after all of which your account would be up and running once more. Given that you last logged in from your desktop at home rather than from a mobile device, I would have thought it highly unlikely that your account was hacked after you placed the football bets you mention on the Saturday evening (although it's not impossible, I suppose). I think it's more likely that you may have won money by innocently and unwittingly betting on matches and/or markets which are regarded in some way as suspect by William Hill and are under investigation by them, something which would explain William Hill's reluctance to divulge any details of what precisely they are investigating.

Obviously this is all speculation, but the idea that all this is simply about the security of your account being compromised doesn't strike me as particularly plausible.

 

[LucasChief5]

Thanks for response Trevrizent. This is very strange. It does seem like I am being fobbed off now. I was going to phone Customer Services again but I know I will get the same response. If I ask to speak to a manager I get told there are no managers available but someone will call back which never happens. I have twice been put on hold and then had the call cut dead. I can't believe how unprofessional they are acting considering such a big company.

Any ideas of the next approach? There must be a reasonable timescale in which they have to let me know what is going on. I should have £80 in my account which I either want to carry on using or to withdraw and start using a different bookmakers that treats it's customers with a bit more respect.

 

[LucasChief5]

Just a quick update (with no more information!).

I have just called again for an update. I asked if the investigation was REALLY for my account being compromised or something else. The gentleman put me on hold for 5 minutes, and came back and said that all my calls had been logged and notes added that explained how unhappy the customer was. He said that it will definitely be resolved but it could take 'X' amount of time! I asked if this could be another week, 6 months, 5 years etc but he just said I should not have originally been told 3-5 days as it can take a lot longer.
Again he said that they do not have verbal contact with the security/cyber team and they only send e-mails.
I asked to have all this confirmed and ironically he went to ask his manager who is going to give me a call back in 24-48 hours despite him being there now! He cannot give me the Manager's name and I couldn't speak to him on the spot!
I guess all I can do is wait but I'll be surprised to get a call back!
Back to the drawing board.

 

[Trevrizent]

For now I would sit tight and give them a bit longer - I was going to suggest until the end of the month, but with Easter approaching, I would be inclined to give them two weeks and wait until everything is back to normal after the holiday. You may or may not hear from them, but if you don't, then let us know. To be honest your options further down the line are fairly limited. You could make a complaint to the UK Gambling Commission by whom WH are licensed in respect of their UK customers, but I doubt that would achieve very much if anything at all (and it certainly wouldn't achieve anything in a hurry). Your ultimate sanction, I suppose, would be to write to their Head Office in Wood Green and give them a deadline by which to allow you to access and withdraw your funds, otherwise you will begin court proceedings against them in the UK Small Claims Court for non-payment of debt. The problem with that course of action, however, is that it will cost you more than the amount you are seeking to recover and there is no guarantee that the court would find in your favour if WH chose to contest the action. I'm afraid that in a case like this all the cards are stacked in favour of the bookmaker and against the player, an issue which, in my view, the regulatory bodies urgently need to address (but don't hold your breath....).

 

[LucasChief5]

Cheers Trevrizent again.

Yep, I think you are right. I will give them longer and hope this is just a genuine investigation that is ongoing.
The most frustrating part is I love the site for the football bets but hey-ho.
Thanks guys for the responses and I will update if anything changes.

 

[yourmum]

did you use a wifi hotspot for any of the betting? as if someone else had used the same one as well to place a bet with WH it would show the same IP address for different accounts!

the only other thing could be that one of the matches in your accumulators has been investigated for possible match fixing and they are waiting to here back so they can either void the bets or payout - yours would obviously have to have the payout adjusted if it was in an accumulator.

 

[yourmum]

Is this the same complaint that is listed on the Pogg website??? has a lot of similarities (i.e account compromised) although the story on the pogg site has much more information

 

[mile]

Subject: William Hill Online
Hi Peter,

We apologize for the delayed response.

Upon checking your account, I can confirm the total of £5363.95 account balance that you have.

However, your query has been forwarded to our Security Team for further follow up regarding your request.

Rest assured you will be notified accordingly once any development regarding your concern is available for you.

Should you have further questions, please feel free to send us an email or contact our Live Chat Team so we can address your concern in a quicker manner.

Kind regards,

Rona
William Hill Online
Customer Services

Hi peter,