online gambling

[pirsephone]

I recently started gambling online and realized very quickly how dangerous it is and how financially vulnerable you are when you give your info to an online casino.

Anyway, let me explain why I'm asking for your help. The site I was gambling on offered "online checks," and I chose that option to deposit, since my bank card no longer accept online casino purchases to be made on it. I provided them with all my information, they did a credit check, and I wrote a couple of online checks. Then, a few days later, I found out that my bank account had been debited like 5 times for each check I actually wrote, for the same amount! They had tried to take almost 2,000 dollars! Luckily, I didn't have more than $500.00 in my account at that time, so most of the checks were declined. They continued to try and debit my account. I called my bank and told them that i hadn't authorized those charges, and my bank refunded my money after I filed the claim. They also blocked that company from making additional charges to my account. However, about a month later, the casino resubmitted about $700.00 in debits (they merely added the word "redeposit" to their business name, and got around the "block" my bank had against them. I had to file another dispute and the bank will be refunding my money today.

Now, I'm getting these scary emails from: "Manager, gametime casino" Titled: "Jail Time" (!)

Here is the body of the last email:

"We have turned over your account to a check collection agency. You must know
the seriousness in writing BAD checks!!

We have the most elaborate fraud protection on the internet. We can not
only tell what computer the deposit was made from, but the IP address, the
ISP that it ran through, and the ISP user account the person was logged in
as (i.e., aol.com, screen name). Equifax has their own fraud protection
they will use as well.

We take this fraud very serious and will prosecute whoever to the fullest
extent of the law.

Please email me with whatever questions you might have."

I have no idea what to do. I can't believe the GALL of these people. True, I ended up stopping payment on all the charges--even the six that I had actually made, but that was because they had attempted to defraud me!
Do I need to hire an attorney? I'm very angry and frightened that they are
trying to make me pay for their own fraudulent charges...
Do you have any advice for me?

Can they lie and say I made charges that I didn't make? Am i going to go to jail?

thank you.

 

[quuen]

although they might have tried to defraud you, you should not have stopped payments on those checks that you owed them money on legitally. They can sue you for the money you made promise to pay on. The court will hold you up to paying that which you owe them. A check is a contract, you said you'd pay, and you have to pay. Be careful of what you do over the internet. They can also charge you fees for which are associated with them trying to get money owed to them from you.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I'm not sure I understand -- are you mad because the casino tried to debit your account for the amount of the online checks you wrote to play in the casino?

 

[pirsephone]

online

NO, I was angry because they submitted multiple debits to my account for every one transaction online.

I have no idea how they were able to do it, all I know is that they did.

But, to answer your question more clearly, I only wrote two checks for $50, one check for $25 and one check for $100. Therefore, they should have only debited my account 4 times, for a total of $225. They first tried to debit my account for almost $2,000 (actually it was $1,850--). Then, a few weeks later, they did it again, this time trying to debit $725.)

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I'm not sure I understand why they tried to debit your account for $2,000 -- what was this for and why?