They finally come clean
Here's an e-mail I received today from Absolute Poker :
"Dear Valued Customer,
We are writing to update you on events surrounding the recent security breach on our site.
First, it is important to know that the security breach, which resulted in unfair play, was resolved immediately after it was confirmed. The known period of unfair playing was approximately 40 days in length, beginning on August 14, 2007. We want to assure you that since that time, AP's sites have been and continue to be absolutely secure.
At this point, all players known to have been adversely impacted by the security breach have been fully reimbursed with interest. The amount that was illicitly 'won' by the illegitimate accounts was approximately US $800,000. The amount reimbursed to players by us as a result of the security breach to date was approximately US $1,600,000.
So far, the accounts known to have been involved are: potripper, graycat, steamroller, doubledrag, payup, supercard55, and romnaldo. These accounts have been closed. All players who played against these accounts during the period in question have received refunds, plus interest, for the net amounts lost.
This incident was a major shock to us and as a result we are continuing our internal investigation and working on many initiatives to improve the transparency and security of our business. In addition, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission has engaged a third party auditor to review all potentially affected transactions and to verify that the security breach has been closed. If further investigation reveals that any other accounts were fraudulent, we will refund any other affected players in the same manner.
Obviously, we cannot refund players for games where there is no evidence of an unfair advantage. However, if you have:
1) played and lost against these accounts during the period in question and you have not received a refund please provide us with the specifics (i.e. Dates and descriptions of tourney or games played against these accounts) so we can further investigate your claims.
2) If you believe another account had an unfair advantage, please provide us with the account name so we can investigate that account and specific games or tournaments that you would like us to investigate.
Also, with any such request, please provide your full legal name, address, and the name(s) of your account(s). We will process your inquiries and respond as soon as we complete our verification. Please note that although it will take time to process these requests, we are conducting our internal audit as quickly as we can.
We deeply regret the damage that has been done to our players and to our credibility within the poker community by this unfortunate incident. We are committed to doing the right thing for our loyal customers, affiliates, employees, shareholders and business partners, and we will continue to work with our gaming commission and its independent auditor to bring this incident into the full light of day and to right any wrongs.
Please understand that we are experiencing a high volume of inquiries and we are working hard to compile specific data and process them as quickly as possible.
Thank you for your patience and continued support.
Absolute Poker Management"
