by Mario Alfonsi | Published on Sep 23, 2020 | Updated on Sep 23, 2020
Cheating controversies have been making headlines in the world of poker these days – from the Mike Postle cheating scandal, to Fedor Kruse allegedly using a solver to cheat while playing at online poker rooms. Now, two high-stakes pros have been scammed out of $20,000 in a clever identity swap.
The incident was shared on the popular Two Plus Two forums when one of the victims in the incident, “Grazvydas” made a post detailing how he and fellow player James Romero ended up becoming victims of a trading scam.
It all started when Grazvydas posted in a Skype group that he wanted to trade his Stars/ACR funds for Natural8, at $20K minimum. Romero was in the same group; he had $60K Luxon and wanted to trade for bitcoins, $5K minimum.
Grazvydas received a message from a certain James Romero expressing interest in the trade. The unsuspecting Grazvydas then asked for a hard vouch before completing the trade. The real Romero was then contacted by the same person who was later discovered to have created two separate Skype profiles simultaneously pretending to be Grazvydas and Romero. The scammer managed to close the deal with both players sending $20K as part of the trade.
Romero successfully received $20K in his ACR account, but when he sent the bitcoins to Grazvydas, it went to the scammer, and therefore Grazvydas did not receive anything. Both players failed to verify who they were dealing with before making the deal.
Disrespectful Response
Upon figuring out what just happened, Grazvydas then raised the incident at the same Skype group where the trade was agreed. Romero, who fortunately did not lose anything in the process, blamed Grazvydas for not conducting proper identity verification before agreeing to the deal. Romero’s responses showed no sign of sympathy, and it remained that way even after Grazvydas took the issue to the Two Plus Two forum.
Romero initially refused to help out, but after taking some heat from the poker community for the way he responded to Grazvydas considering that both of them were actually at fault, he eventually offered to meet Grazvydas halfway and split the $20K loss between them. In the end, both players were $10K out of pocket.
Grazvydas, who was obviously appalled at how Romero handled the situation, demanded a public apology.
This incident serves as a warning to players to always be extra vigilant when dealing with other individuals online. The internet has quickly become a hotspot for various forms of fraud and cheating.
