High Roller Suffers Skrill Hack, Has Thousands Stolen

Earlier this month a VIP high roller ended up logging into his Skrill account only to notice that his account had been hacked and more than €150,000 was stolen.

The news of the hack was made known by Casino Listings administrator CL-Ed , who posted up the advisory to players, letting them know that there was a potential issue with the e-Wallet financial firm and advising players to take steps to secure their accounts.

The victim in this case is a high roller who had his account credentials stolen by a hacker, who then went ahead and sent all of the player’s money to several different Skrill accounts very quickly, sending out large sums each time. Surprisingly, this didn’t raise any red flags for Skrill, and the theft was only noticed when the player logged onto his account and noticed his balance depleted and sent to accounts he did not recognize.

Adding to the lapses put out by Skrill, tracking the criminals is going to be very difficult, as the company did not record any addresses or IP information that the hacker may have used to dupe the company’s support staff into giving him access to the account.

A few days after learning of the theft, Casino Listings received an email from Skrill, which read in part:

“*At Skrill we constantly aim to improve the online security of our merchant accounts.*

*To help with this, we are introducing two-factor authentication on all our merchant accounts. We STRONGLY recommend that you activate and use two-factor authentication and that you change your user account password within the next 24 hours.*”

The email, and another that was sent later on suggest that Skrill may be aware of a mass hacking effort on its users, and is taking steps to protect players, but failing to inform its customers that their money may be at risk. The realization that something is afoot came from various other Casino Listings forum members, who shared that their accounts were summarily locked by Skrill, and had to request a new password from the company and were given the chance to get free two-factor authorization to protect their accounts.

Making matters worse for those affected by the scheme, it seems that Skrill has a pretty light stance on fraud protections for their players, and its customer service has not been keen to help resolve the thefts, as user Ramy Delami noted in their experience:

“*Since I'm VIP member and being victim of fraud I thought I was covered 100%, but I was told you won't qualify for (a) 100% money back guarantee. I asked: ‘ Why?’ She said: ‘Because you don't have a token’, which btw no one from Skrill ever told me about the device or emailed me.*”

Other Casino Listings users also voiced concerns regarding Skrill, with some others noting that their accounts have also been hacked, with another user informing the site that they had lesser amounts of money stolen and sent to other accounts, which likely have been compromised. It is currently unclear as to whether or not player balances held by Skrill are insured by the UK FCA  (Skrill is headquartered in the UK) against fraud. Many countries such as the United States have bank and other financial accounts protected against fraudulent activities, with American bank accounts protected up to $250,000 per user at an institution.

Even though a resolution to this matter does not appear to be forthcoming immediately, it is important that users of Skrill be made to know of the potential dangers of keeping money in their accounts, as the company is apparently undergoing a series of attacks and is not disclosing it to the public. Skrill is a payment processing firm that utilizes internet transactions for its users.

The company was founded in 2001 and is based out of London, where it has grown to be a multi-million dollar firm. The company’s services are similar to those of PayPal, which also serves as a popular eWallet. The fast transfer of services and low fees has made Skrill a popular choice among online casinos and gamblers, and the service is provided by more than 250 different casinos, including big names like Bet365, BetFred, Mr Green, InterCasino, 32Red, and many more.