[cristina5801]

First time poster here with a very sad story about Unibet and looking for help and suggestions.

I have been a Unibet customer for about one year. Did some deposits and some withdrawals during this time period, but overall I had lost money with Unibet.

Two weeks ago I won a few small bets and asked for a 600 Euros withdrawal on Tuesday. I kept money in my account and did some more betting (soccer). On Sunday the 8th, I won a few more bets and my account balance went to about 1200 Euros (with a 600 Euros withdrawal still pending, so total they have about 1800 Euros). That same day, and although I did not ask for a withdrawal my account was blocked with the following message: "Your account has been blocked, please contact customer service for more information."

I sent them an email to which I received a reply a few hours later:
"Dear Customer,

As a routine security check, we need you to come back to us with the following documents before we are able to handle your withdrawal request/can reactivate your account:

- A copy of your ID/Passport/Drivers license.
- A copy of the credit/debit card. Make sure that you leave the 6 first and the last 4 digits on the front of the card visible to us i.e. 4552 11** **** 1111.
Cover the six middle numbers on the front of the card (without all the 16 numbers,the card is unusable).
All other information on front at the card have to be left visible to us. On the back of the card, you have to cover the security code ( the last three digits) . All other information has to be left visible."

In a few minutes I sent them the information they requested. This on Monday the 9th. This was the first time I ever heard of a site blocking and account confirm identity, but no big deal.

On Wednesday I sent an email inquiring to the status of my situation and received no reply. Sent another on Thursday and nothing. At this point I am getting nervous with the situation. Also tried "live chat" but no one was ever there.

On Friday I filled my first complaint with the Lotteries & Gaming Authority explaining the situation.

On Saturday, and after I sent about 20 email and tried to get someone on "live" chat I finally received the following email from Unibet:

"Dear Sir

The docs you have sent so far are Ok and have been approved.
However our security department need before approving your withdraw a Printscreen of your MB profile page and Proof of address(Phone- Electricity Bill(No Mobile)Bankstatement etc.) Please send this docs as soon as possible so we can close the issue."

Notice that they said the documents had sent, the only ones they asked for, were "approved", yet they asked me for even more information. Makes you wonder what they would ask for had the documents NOT been approved!!

Again I sent in the requested documents within a few minutes.

I have no clue what Unibet trying to "verify", but I have already told them to give me my money and just close my account. Obviously I don´t want to use a sports book that doesn´t pay out players winnings!

I would like help and suggestions on how to deal with this situation. I also have a blog (not gambling related) with about 3000 RSS readers and 1000 email newsletter subscribers. I have though of asking my readers (first using the newsletter only) to search for "Unibet" on Google.co.uk and run up there adwords budget. I used this technique successully with a hosting company that was refusing to turn over the backups of my blog sites once. Obviously I can run up a couple of thousand of Adwords expense for them in just a few hours, but since my blog is not gambling related I really don´t want to take this public with my blog readers.

Toughts, ideias or suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

[rufcut]

Unibet is known for this faffing around obsessively with Id in multiple stages.
Go back on livechat or phone, and ask if they have received the second set of files.
Their system blocks all large files, so you have to make screenshot files smaller and they might not have received them. They don't tell you this, you just have to work it out after they keep denying having received stuff you sent. Small files go through fine though.

[APK]

Just phone and they'll pay.
Guess they're not used to women gambling and want to make sure you are who you are.

[cristina5801]

Yes, they are "clamming" they didn´t receive the second set of documents I sent on Saturday... LOL

The files are small, and are the same size as the first files that I originally last week (8 days ago).

So now I just sent them about 8 different emails with the documents, just so they cann´t claim these don´t arrive. My guess, they will be asking for a DNA sample next.

Honestly, they will never see me as a customers again, but if they wanted me to go all they needed to do was ask, there are plenty of excellent sports books around.

[cristina5801]

I never heard of a sports book blocking an account just to check your identity, they could delay the withdrawal, but why block an account? They are just looking for an excuse not to pay, otherwise they would have asked for everything on the first day, and not do this over what is going to be a two week period now...

[rufcut]

1800 euros wouldn't be much for them. They are not a robbing book, but their ID department is notorious. Phoning is a good idea - even if you feel frustrated with them, try to maintain calm and ask simply what they require and ask them to stay on the phone while you email it and check they receive it.

[cristina5801]

Originally Posted by rufcut

1800 euros wouldn't be much for them. They are not a robbing book, but their ID department is notorious. Phoning is a good idea - even if you feel frustrated with them, try to maintain calm and ask simply what they require and ask them to stay on the phone while you email it and check they receive it.

I guess you might be wrong. Look at the email I just received from them:

"Dear Madam

We have received your Docs.

We inform you that your account is under investigation for violation of Unibet rules. 2.4 & 2.8 & 5.1.12.
The account will remain blocked until the investigation is concluded.
This will not happen before the 2008-03-01.
Kindly contact us again after that date."

Anybody even know what those items are?

[HeeeHAWWWW]

------------------------------------------------------------------
2.4 An Account Holder warrants and represents, at all times, not to be:

• Resident of Malta, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom, Turkey, Hong Kong or The United States of America;
• Restricted by limited legal capacity;
• Acting on behalf of another party;
• Classified as a compulsive gambler;
• Depositing monies originating from criminal and/or other un-authorised activities;
• Depositing monies through a Credit Card which the Account Holder is notauthorised to use and/or utilising a Credit Card in a jurisdiction in whichbetting and gaming are prohibited;
• Conducting criminal activities whereby an Unibet Account is directly or indirectly involved; and/or
• Holding an active account with another legal entity which is part of the same group as Unibet, meaning other entities being, directly or indirectly, controlled by Unibet Group Plc.

2.8 An Account Holder can only hold one Unibet Account at a time.


5.1.12 "Syndicate Betting" is an act, prohibited by Unibet, where an Account Holder, or parties acting in association with an Account Holder, evades the Rules of Unibet - directly or indirectly.
------------------------------------------------------------------


Didn't know UK users were forbidden, that's a new one on me. Not that I bet there anymore anyway.

[cristina5801]

I just found the clauses. None of them qualify, the only thing that I could have violated, and I am 99% sure didn´t, is where it says you can´t have two accounts. I am 99% sure I only have one account, and are 110% I have only one active account, at least over the last year which is when I opened this account.

[cristina5801]

Originally Posted by HeeeHAWWWW

------------------------------------------------------------------
2.4 An Account Holder warrants and represents, at all times, not to be:

• Resident of Malta, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom, Turkey, Hong Kong or The United States of America;
• Restricted by limited legal capacity;
• Acting on behalf of another party;
• Classified as a compulsive gambler;
• Depositing monies originating from criminal and/or other un-authorised activities;
• Depositing monies through a Credit Card which the Account Holder is notauthorised to use and/or utilising a Credit Card in a jurisdiction in whichbetting and gaming are prohibited;
• Conducting criminal activities whereby an Unibet Account is directly or indirectly involved; and/or
• Holding an active account with another legal entity which is part of the same group as Unibet, meaning other entities being, directly or indirectly, controlled by Unibet Group Plc.

2.8 An Account Holder can only hold one Unibet Account at a time.


5.1.12 "Syndicate Betting" is an act, prohibited by Unibet, where an Account Holder, or parties acting in association with an Account Holder, evades the Rules of Unibet - directly or indirectly.
------------------------------------------------------------------


Didn't know UK users were forbidden, that's a new one on me. Not that I bet there anymore anyway.

Nothing from 2.4, 99.9% sure its not 2.8, and I don´t even know what 5.1.12 is, nor how I would go about this. I mean, I bet on a few soccer games... LOL

I fail to understand how Unibet is rated b+

[cristina5801]

This is kind of a "fishy" clause if I ever saw one:

"Holding an active account with another legal entity which is part of the same group as Unibet, meaning other entities being, directly or indirectly, controlled by Unibet Group Plc."


How do we know is a company is "being, directly or indirectly, controlled by Unibet Group Plc"????!!!!

That could be used to avoid paying just about anyone. How can we know if Unibet controls a company "indirectly"?

[rufcut]

Keeping you waiting for over two weeks for an explanation seems unreasonable.

Maybe it's time for an SBR complaint here, but do be honest with the SBR guys about your 1% of doubt.

[cristina5801]

Originally Posted by rufcut

Keeping you waiting for over two weeks for an explanation seems unreasonable.

Maybe it's time for an SBR complaint here, but do be honest with the SBR guys about your 1% of doubt.

I visited the forum a few times, only to check on ratings. So I am not even sure what a complain here does or means. The 1% doubt, I mean I could have opened an account with them say 4/5 years ago and not remember, but like I said, I don´t think so, and if I did the user information would have been the same, etc. The account would have been inactive a long time ago. But again, 99.9% sure I never had an account with these guys before.

But there "reported possible violations" are all over the board... They make no sense, it felt from the beginning that they were just looking for an excuse not to pay... I would expect that this will happen a lot more with other people... I mean, 1800 Euros is not a big deal for me, and its even less for them, unless of course they start doing this to A LOT of other "customers". Mark my words...

[APK]

Originally Posted by cristina5801

I mean, 1800 Euros is not a big deal for me, and its even less for them,

1800€ can buy you a lot of handbags and shoes, Cristina.

[cristina5801]

Originally Posted by APK

1800€ can buy you a lot of handbags and shoes, Cristina.

In may case it would be more like fine wine and dinning ;-)

I talked to my lawyer this morning and from now on Unibet will be dealing with him. I have several online business so I am used to truning this over to legal when I try to get scammed.

He just laughed at some of Unibet´s allegation. Which one of these items: scan of credit card, national ID card, proof of address, and scan of Moneybookers profile page prove that I was involved in "syndicate betting"? LOL

As far as having two accounts? They could have just used my email address, I use ONE email address for all sportsbooks, and it matches with my Moneybookers email (I am organized like that).

As far as having another account, with a company "indirectly controled" by Unibet. Well, most of these companies are limited partnerships headquartered in off-shores. It is impossible to know how they control directly much the less indirectly.

My lawyer is going to have a field day with this "artists" and I will be asking for more than the 1800 euros they originally tried to rip off!

[Jaug]

Two weeks is bad but it's not bad enough to go to a lawyer. I think you are overreacting pretty heavily here.

[cristina5801]

Originally Posted by Jaug

Two weeks is bad but it's not bad enough to go to a lawyer. I think you are overreacting pretty heavily here.

Actually, on March 1st it will be almost a month that I asked for the initial 600 Euro withdrawal, and Unibet is accusing me of, and I quote, running "Syndicate Betting". (not much of a syndicate if in one week I only won 1800 Euros... LOL).

If any of the allegations they are making were even half true they could prove them in about 30 seconds, they wouldn´t need three weeks. After which period they want me to "contact them"?

I made it clear to them that I would like my money and my account closed.

There are sportsbooks that pay out withdrawals in 2/3 hours with no hassles, why should we deal with companies like this, and just play dead while they bully us around?

They didn´t think I was doing any of the stuff I am accused of when over the course of the last year I lost several thousand Euros with them...

[rufcut]

For what it's worth, I think you're doing the right thing. It's not the only case like this I've heard of. If you can bring Unibet into line, you'll be doing everyone a favour.

[Casi]

Classified as a compulsive gambler? That is *really* written there? lmao..

[browntrousers]

Originally Posted by HeeeHAWWWW

Didn't know UK users were forbidden, that's a new one on me. Not that I bet there anymore anyway.

They are not.

Don't know where you found the clause but I can't see anything about UK residents being excluded.

I have had an account for ages at Unibet, they are ok in general but absolutely terrible with processing ID. Eventually they do approve the docs, provided all is in order.

Can't comment on the OP's specific case, may be the name/address is similar to someone else's etc. A phone call should clarify a lot.

As an aside, it seems quite normal that accounts are temporarily suspended, pending ID verification. Have had this at several books.

[HeeeHAWWWW]

Originally Posted by browntrousers

They are not.

Don't know where you found the clause but I can't see anything about UK residents being excluded.

I was quoting from their T&Cs, see term 2.4:

https://www.unibet.com/unibetinfo/te...-account-rules

[doowahdiddy]

Originally Posted by HeeeHAWWWW

I was quoting from their T&Cs, see term 2.4:

https://www.unibet.com/unibetinfo/te...-account-rules

Because UK residents are meant to join unibet.co.uk

[Santo]

Must be new(ish), I used to bet there... The last time they spammed me was June 2008, so may have come in around then.

I'm now resident in Denmark, so will have to see if they want to spam me again ;-)

[HeeeHAWWWW]

Originally Posted by doowahdiddy

Because UK residents are meant to join unibet.co.uk

Aha, good spot.

Strange, I always played at dotcom, and there's no difference in the sites - my logon/pword works at both.

[cristina5801]

Originally Posted by browntrousers

They are not.

Don't know where you found the clause but I can't see anything about UK residents being excluded.

The UK residents being excluded is a direct quote from there TOS... check the site. I didn´t know that either, but I am in Portugal.

[fingas]

Originally Posted by doowahdiddy

Because UK residents are meant to join unibet.co.uk

From what i can remember, the co.uk version of unibet was brought up years after the .com domain, so before the co.uk domain UK customers should be able to have an account at .com, not sure if after that they migrated all the accounts from UK users or not.

Also, they bought a belgian bookmaker, mrbookmaker, and all the accounts migrated to unibet. I was a customer of mrbookmaker and unibet too and when they bought the belgian bookie I instantly had 2 accounts opened at unibet.

Should it be my fault if I have 2 accounts with them? Surely not.

[GoodOldTed]

They probably operate like several UK firms and send their UK accts through the UK for tax, and all the others via Malta/Gibraltar etc for a lower tax rate.

Sounds like incompetence more than an attempt at theft, but the longer it drags out, of course you'd get worried. Bringing in a lawyer is unlikely to help.

Any firm licensed in the UK or Australia will have rather stringent identity verification requirements. Part and parcel of living in this day and age where clueless politicians accuse books of being facilities to launder money for terrorism.....

[cristina5801]

Originally Posted by Casi

Classified as a compulsive gambler? That is *really* written there? lmao..

That´s probably a typo. What Unibet probably means is it is against their TOS if you are a "Classified as a winning compulsive gambler"

[Yabatumba]

Originally Posted by Jaug

Two weeks is bad but it's not bad enough to go to a lawyer. I think you are overreacting pretty heavily here.

You're head is not correct, try fooling the internal revenue service by not paying your taxes for two week and see what happens.

[cristina5801]

Received an email from Unibet:

"While we can understand your frustration and have read your posts we would not be able to change our security procedures due to this. Most of our customers understand the fact that we are a very secure website and appreciate this. While our security measures may seem extreme at times the customers who have been victims of fraud elsewhere do not seem to think so. Thank you for your understanding and we shall be contacting you once your verificaiton is over."

They are at least following this thread, but there email is kind of confusing, since their initial claim is that I am cheating them, and not that anyone is cheating me.... oh well...

[GoodOldTed]

sounds like paper-pushing at its finest. Just how hard is it to verify some docs, look at the bets and then rubber stamp the withdrawal? If the customer was involved in some suspicious betting patterns/events then perhaps they have a case, but otherwise, it's just incompetence. Does their KYC person come in once a week??

[betpartners]

Originally Posted by cristina5801

I guess you might be wrong. Look at the email I just received from them:

"Dear Madam

We have received your Docs.

We inform you that your account is under investigation for violation of Unibet rules. 2.4 & 2.8 & 5.1.12.
The account will remain blocked until the investigation is concluded.
This will not happen before the 2008-03-01.
Kindly contact us again after that date."

Anybody even know what those items are?

What do they mean this will not happen before the 2008-03-01, i think they must mean 2009, so it seems whatever you wont get this resolved with them until March 1st.

This KYC stuff does tend to be a pain in the butt especially when they do it when you want to withdraw for the first time and not when you open an account, unibet are not the only ones that do it that way.

Not on that they are not more open with you really and it does seem to be dragging on too much.

[cristina5801]

In the interest of accuracy, I would like to update this thread.

Although I did not receive any email, today, March 9th, I noticed that my account has been "unblocked". My balance is in the account, and I have request a payout of 500€.

Hopefully everything is fine now.

[pjesnik24]

Let us hope that you will finally get your money. they usually (almost always) pay within 24 hours so I guess that you should get your money today or tomorrow if you are using ewallets

[Stumpage]

Hope it works out as things seem to be in motion, at long last. These are some of the best payout stalling techniques I've heard of since my days at SportsInteraction, when any submission of ID, bills, etc. inevitably led to the email that your documents were "too dark", "too bright", "too fuzzy" or my personal favorite, "too tilted". At least in my situation you could have some fun wagering on which excuse SIA would use as you waited for the obligatory email response.