This Matter was Resolved !As a goodwill gesture and in an effort to resolve this matter we refunded hungerstyle bet that was initially confiscated due to fraud attempt :
https://www.directbet.eu/BetStatus.cshtml?BetID=128iBKnkKPcSPcwZEDMK7sSMJGodx3n47oWe also paid out in full hungerstyle other winning bet that was put on hold during this incident :
https://www.directbet.eu/BetStatus.cshtml?BetID=12Yef7jVW6PsjJgkTZJqD5jJKoweMvt8Wkhungerstyle informed us that this resolves this matter to his satisfaction and he signed an agreement stating that he understands what he did is against our terms and conditions and that he will refrain from doing it again in the future.
DirectBet Official Response to hungerstylehungerstyle is an hacker who attempted to defraud us.
He placed a live bet in-play on a Tennis match and funded it with Bitcoins that were already spent on another transaction as you can see here :
https://live.blockcypher.com/btc/tx/89be96f6cecf47de065ea152b3d1bd969047cb282c61a4c30d82d78e38ef1ddd/In addition, the transaction was sent with significantly low fees, more than 20 times lower than recommended !
Now why would anyone send $16,500 bet and not be willing to pay even 1 cent in fees ?
There is only one reason. This was done on purpose to give him the option not to pay for this bet in case it loses.
No one is sending $16,500 transfer without even 1 cent in fees and with coins that were already spent elsewhere, unless their intentions are fraudulent.
Upon some further investigation we found that we are not the only victims of his fraudulent activity.
The payout address that he used for this bet is 1E66h8kzMvmQobkQDDtSwxmR8SDzUxqzhd
As you can see from the link below, there is only one payment that he made from this address and it was also double spent :
https://live.blockcypher.com/btc/tx/b8d63362b302c1a22fe821c9152ba9074e0ba51806c20cb3cd330170379baed7/You will notice the transaction was double spent in the exact same manner he planned to double spend his bet in case it loses.
He deliberately sent it as a big sized transaction with significantly low fees at first, and later double spent it in a transaction with excessive
fees, much higher fees than required to ensure the double spend is executed immediately on the next block.
If you look at his posts you will see that for several days he tried to avoid posting the payout address of his bet, because he knew this would be an evidence of his fraudulent activity, and not just towards DirectBet.
When we first confronted him with our findings he did not deny his double spend attempt. Moreover, he agreed not to do it again if we return his original wager. However, when we asked him to sign a formal agreement he refused.
Later on he informed us that he is not the person who sent this bet transfer and that he does not own the payout address used for this bet.
When we asked to get in touch with the person who actually sent this bet transfer and who owns the payout address, he said that this person is "not available".
We will not be discussing this matter with hungerstyle any further and require that the person who sent these double spent transactions and who owns the payout address will get in touch with us and sign an agreement if he wants his coins back.
DirectBet is the most popular and trusted Crypto Currency Sportsbook. We would not have risked our reputation unless we were 100% certain this was a fraud attempt. We have additional evidence that we can not disclose for security reasons but believe that the evidence presented here is more than sufficient.
DirectBet pays out hundreds of Bitcoins in winnings every day. We have many high roller bettors who enjoy anonymous betting and instant payouts and have been voted the # 1 Sportsbook of the year by Bitcointalk members for two years in a row.
https://directbet.eu/
Update - hungerstyle lies revealed, screen capture manipulated !To better understand how it unfolded, lets get back to the very beginning.
If you look at the screen capture that hungerstyle posted, you will notice that in the second e-mail we asked him the following question :
"In regards to the first bet # 128iBKnkKPcSPcwZEDMK7sSMJGodx3n47o, is it the first ever bet that you placed on our website ?"
His reply was "Yes", but he deliberately deleted it from the screen capture.
Why did he delete it ? because he lied and I am going to show you a proof below.
We later asked : "So you physically met someone during the Tennis match, gave him $15K in cash, and he made the BTC transfer to your bet ?"
He replied : "Correct."
This was also a lie. Check out this bet, which hungerstyle placed right before the bet in dispute :
https://directbet.eu/BetStatus.cshtml?BetID=182zX2qwkZupeqa992EqwiahmVfg27ScUPAs you can see he first funded it with 0.007613 BTC dust just to make sure it gets through our system, then he funded it with the real bet of 31.92916466 BTC.
The big 31.92916466 BTC transfer was sent with a very low fee of 0.000014 BTC / KB, just like the bet in dispute, so that he could double spend it in case it loses, while the small dust transfer was sent with a high fee of 0.00026 BTC / KB.
However, the bet was won and so he didn't double spend it, and the bet was eventually paid out automatically.
If you follow the payout in the blockchain you will see that the same coins paid were used to fund the 36.5 BTC bet in dispute :
https://blockchain.info/tx/b5f3372906eef662ca264327255ec28028a3003ffd13b16df2083e0350002d1b(The 34.8 BTC winnings were sent to the address # 1GyJHLY5aygkQZZjfGJXNA8UkubvGy7V57 and from there they were moved to the addresses 16MyjFgtuGAhR3Wn5TXFsB1R9JmDgcb1Bz and 1Lwpt1Kh2ex9eEdSvXSwwmZZtRYT3vg7kw which were used to fund the 36.5 BTC bet in dispute directly.)
So as you can see, he lied as this was not his first ever bet on DirectBet as he said, and he tried to hide it by deleting the e-mail from the screen capture.
As a side note, notice that for the "test" bet of 0.007613 BTC he included high fees of 0.00026 BTC / KB while for the big 32 BTC bet he included invalid fees of 0.000014 BTC / KB. Why will you pay 19 times more fees for a tiny transfer of 0.007613 BTC than for a big transfer of 32 BTC ?
Also, as you can see in his posts he claimed that he physically met a local exchange during the Tennis match, gave him $15,000 in cash in exchange for the 36.5 BTC that were transferred to the bet in dispute.
The above evidence shows that this was also a lie. The winnings from his previous 32 BTC bet were sent directly to fund his 36 BTC bet as is evident in the blockchain.
This to show you that there isn't really any "local exchange" involved and no conversion was done from USD to place this bet. He simply used his past winnings to fund this bet !
"local exchange" is just a cover story that he made to prevent us from asking real questions about the double spend attempt.
Update - Standard Universal PolicyWe believe that the evidence provided is sufficient to suggest that a double spend was attempted.
When you send out a transaction with extremely low fees and a few hours later double spend it with extremely high fees, and you then repeat on the same pattern over and over again, that can not possibly be wallet misconfiguration or user error or fee saving. That's intentional fraud.
That being said, even if you disagree with the above, please note that Bitcoin Sportsbooks realize that due to the anonymous nature of Bitcoin, it may not always be possible to show to the public bullet proof evidence of fraud attempt.
For this reason, there is a standard universal rule among Bitcoin Sportsbooks that entitles them to confiscate coins when
they believe a fraud is involved. Notice that we say "believe", not "prove".
All top Bitcoin Sportsbooks have the same rule, and we all confiscate coins when fraudulent activity is involved.
Hackers will always find ways to exploit and unfortunately that's the only effective measure we have to combat them.
Here is the rule of NitrogenSports :
If Nitrogen Sports believes that any customer has intentionally acted in bad faith or has engaged in fraudulent activity, Nitrogen Sports reserves the right to take any steps necessary.
Here is the rule from BitcoinRush :
If you are found to be cheating, colluding, or attempting to cheat at any game offered by BitcoinRush.io your account will be closed, and the funds tied to the account will be confiscated by the operators of BitcoinRush.io
BetcoinSports
If BetcoinSports.com, in its sole discretion, believes that any player, affiliate or marketing partner has intentionally acted in bad faith or has engaged in fraudulent activity, BetcoinSports.com reserves the right to take any and all steps it deems appropriate.
We have a similar rule :
We reserve the right to confiscate wagers when we believe that fraudulent activity is involved, including but not limited to, hacking attempts, double spends and odds manipulation. By placing a bet at DirectBet you agree that in case of any dispute DirectBet decision is final.
Notice we all say "
when we believe that fraudulent activity is involved".
You might not agree with it, you might argue that it gives us too much freedom, but it is clearly stated and we are not forcing anyone to accept it and bet on our website.
During the past 2.5 years we have developed extensive knowledge, experience and tools that allow us to distinguish between fraud attempts and regular bets.
By placing bets on our website bettors accept our terms of service.
You should know that all other Sportsbooks confiscate coins due to fraud and that in most cases it is not possible to show undisputable evidence of the fraud.
Update - Resolution
As we informed hungerstyle from the very beginning, in order to resolve this matter we require him to pass a standard KYC procedure to authenticate the contact information that he provided for the agreement and we will then prepare the agreement for him to sign.
The agreement will say that he understands that what he did is against our terms and conditions and that we may confiscate his coins if he attempts to do it again. It will also say that after getting his bet back he will not have any further claims against DirectBet.
It's really the minimum we have to do given the circumstances. We assure him here in public that his contact information will remain confidential.
Even though we can confiscate his bet per our terms and conditions, we are willing to refund it as a goodwill gesture and in an effort to resolve this matter but unfortunately so far he did not cooperate.
