Theoretical Refer-A-Friend Question

[Damien]

So on Full Tilt, you can refer a friend and for a micro-grinder like myself, the incentive is pretty good. The friend gets the normal 100% back on initial deposit and also gets $25 after playing a certain amount. I, as the refer-er, get $100 once the friend has played a certain amount. Could somebody theoretically refer a bunch of friends, but those friends are actually the same person just setting up different accounts? This obviously sounds borderline or outright wrong, but say I refer Dick, Jane, and Sally, who are all actually me under different accounts. All 3 referred accounts get the 100% match, the $25, and the original account eventually gets an extra $300. Doesn't sound like there would be anything wrong with this working in theory, but if someone were to try this, do you think Full Tilt would be suspicious?

I'm not actually doing this, but I did refer my fiance and she plays $1 SNGs sporadically and therefore was not going to clear her bonus in time for either her to get the $25 or me to get the $100. So, I transferred some of my money into her account and have been playing the cash games so that we can clear it. This will be +EV for the both of us even if I lose $124 (actually more because of the 100% match). So it just got me to thinking...

[Bullajami]

How will you deposit and withdraw?

[Damien]

Well, with the two accounts that I have now, deposit is through two different credit cards with different names on them (my fiances and me). Haven't withdrawn anything yet, but that would probably be a check. So I guess what your pointing out is that if someone were to try to do this, they would need real identities for each player referred.

The best way to pull it off would be to actually refer the friends with all of their information, but just give the friends money up front for the CC purchase and then play all of the accounts yourself. If you could find people to agree to that.

[taz115]

They can and will close accounts if they suspect gnoming (one player playing under multiple screenanems usually for bonus abusing purposes). I think it its rare that they will confiscate funds but they are fully within their rights to do so.

I wouldn't do it personally. And I definately would not be making transfers between accounts that I'm playing.

I don't like the idea behind gnoming and I don't recommend or condone it. It clearly violates the T&Cs of the site. That being said, a couple of years ago I set up a second account at a certain site to get rakeback that I otherwise would not have qualified for.

If I was a micro limit guy I don't think the reward would be great enough to risk having accounts closed or funds confiscated. I'd play my legit bonuses and thats it. If you do decide to do it don't be sloppy as I know of an ITHer that has had accounts closed at FTP for multi-accounting.

[Damien]

This got me thinking and this is really weird. Both of our accounts are under my girlfriends name, with the exact same address. We put mine under her name to match the credit card that we used before she even thought that she would start an account. So, Full Tilt has two registered users with the exact same name and address and they haven't sent either one of us an e-mail about this. We weren't trying to do anything wrong here... the only reason I'm playing her account right now is to try to clear her bonus for her. Is it time for me to send Full Tilt an e-mail and try to explain this or what?

[ciaran]

Also, FTP is very aggressive about shutting down duplicate accounts, whereas some other sites, at least historically, haven't been.

If you can legitimately show that each account is opened by a real person (in other words all your friends/spouses/kids/parents are available to provide necessary documentation on demand), you'd probably be able to get away with it. I mean, the situation with your fiancée is pretty typical, so it's less likely to get dinged. But, if she was playing $1 games and you're suddenly playing $60s that'll stick out at some point.

[Damien]

The other thing is that I referred her and we used the same name on the two accounts! So basically, when she opened her account she is saying "Hi, I'm Jane Doe at 123 Fake St and I got referred here by Jane Doe at 123 Fake St". Why didn't FT flag this? Now I've got to decide whether to try to explain that one of the accounts is actually me, or to do nothing and hope they don't just happen to notice the issue when I try to withdraw. I hope FT hasn't taken ourr money with the intent of not allowing the withdrawal because of a stupid mistake...

[taz115]

I wouldn't phone FT at this point because you'll likely look pretty suspicious with 2 accounts in the same name and address even though the intention was not to gnome. Your phone call may result in one account being locked for investigation, but Im not sure about this I could just see it theoretically happening.

I'd hammer out the bouns and w/d the funds. Then I'd stop using one of those accounts. Or transfer the money back and forget about the bonus.

But I'm not really an expert on these things, I'm just guessing as to what would be best.

Tara wanted a Stars account so I emailed Stars and let them know upfront thay my wife wanted an account. I'd recommend calling ahead to avoid any potential future suspicion. Maybe set her up on Stars or somewhere else and forget about FT. I dunno.

[Damien]

[taz115]

I doubt they have caught anything yet since you are able to play on each.

But hopefully you can see how refering a friend and receiving the bonus all the while doing it with the same name address and transfering money between the accounts is a bad idea. It is a hard predicament to explain and noone will believe that you weren't gnoming for the purposes of getting more bonus $$.

[Damien]

[Bullajami]

You should not have any trouble withdrawing. Some sites allow multiple accounts in the same home and I have exploited this to take advantage of a few bonuses or to switch an account to rakeback by setting up an account in Mrs Bull's name. I consider that much just a stretch of the rules.

Now....systematically setting up accounts in other people's names - that probably goes over the line. That is a value judgement call, though. I'd expectt he poker sites to judge it as "abuse" and ban you.

The Poker site will know that all those accounts have different street addresses, but play from the same IP address. It would be difficult to get away with, and difficult to defend if you were called out by them. There are better ways to get poker deals.

[Damien]

Thanks Bull.

[Raisindye]