I'm rather confused as to the code of ethics here. My hack was by no means fraud, I simply took advantage of a stupid system. I didn't cheat or steal, or even violate the site's Terms of Service (which said you couldn't use automated scripts to manipulate their GUI but nothing about the website).
I did not break any law in any country, or even violate a site rule. It's preposterous to call it unethical. I simply took advantage of a flawed system.
I for one misread your story, should have read more carefully. I thought you got points just for repressing the button after one deposit. The other way (as you described it), yeah, I guess it was just stupidity on the part of the poker firm. Morality would still be debatable - if it had not been a poker firm, but a charity or whatever, people might feel different about it.
I also often have to sign contracts, and I am not sure if all of them are 100% waterproof - probably they are not. But even though the opposing lawyers could probably screw me over, doesn't mean it would be ethical for them to do so.
I strongly suspect that the site had an agreement that said, "When you deposit x dollars, you get y points." You seem to be morally juvenile. When you crack (not hack) a computer system in order to steal merchandise, it doesn't matter how "stupid" the system was. I think a deadbolt is pretty fucking "stupid", but that doesn't make smashing it open somehow acceptable.
EDIT: Frankly, I re-read the original post and I'm not sure what's going on. Is he actually depositing money or depositing a small amount and somehow refreshing it so that it reads like a larger amount? If he is doing the former, then it isn't a hack at all. If he is doing the latter, then it is thievery, pure and simple. I read it the latter way because the former way (as I said) makes no sense as a "hack".
He deposited $50,000 at a time! You were allowed to make as many deposits as you wanted, $500 at once. He didn't steal points, he got the points he was supposed to get for clicking deposit 100 times.
Why do you say he stole something? I can't believe how many (people) are misreading Matt's words. There is no fraud, there is no crime. What is your problem?
>you could make one deposit and then just keep hitting refresh to deposit again and again
He is actually depositing money and very large amounts of money. The site made it easy to deposit up to $500, so Matt repeated that process ad nauseum. After a week, when the points cleared, he withdrew the money.
The hack is because he was able to get large amounts of video game systems and video games by having his bankroll tied up for one week.
Okay, but it's not a hack then. Any idiot could sit there depositing a pile of money, withdrawing it, wash, rinse, repeat. He definitely wasn't making it clear as to what was going on.
There's no crime here. He followed the rules of the promotion.
Party Poker awarded points for making deposits. Matt deposited money. He would deposit so much money at a time (up to $50K) that he got bored clicking buttons, so he wrote a script to do it for him.
So, if depositing money wasn't against the rules and withdrawing the money after he got the FPPs wasn't against the rules, how can you possible claim that "this was a crime"?
I am quite sure poker sites have rules in their player agreements that strictly forbid and scripts or automation, which may overlap here to the cashier side of things.
I could imagine there were others trying the same thing, but then gambling away all their deposited money within a week. So maybe it was all good for the poker firm after all.
How was this a crime? He just exploited their dumb system. This "hack" is kind of obvious, and whomever implemented the system should have thought of it. The only remotely criminal thing I can see in this is using an automated script to move his money.
The way I read the post, he deposited all his money ($50,000 or so?) into the account, withdrawing it again as soon as he was credited. He could have refreshed the page himself, hired a Chinese monkey to do it or create a script to log in and deposit money again and again...call me a genius, but I can't see how this is a very sophisticated or even defraud an obviously broken system.
I don't think either me or the casino were unethical. It's sort of the gambler ethic, which I guess may not be obvious to the general public. You're supposed to do anything and everything you can, within the rules, to gain an edge. Casinos do it to the players, players to casinos, players to players, etc. Anything not against the rules is considered ethical, and anyone who doesn't use every legal tool at his disposal is a sucker.
Well, it's kind of like admitting fraud in public (for lack of a better word). It reminds me of the recent incident were some gangsters were busted because they posted revealing videos on YouTube. Moreover, I wonder if some crawler could be devised looking for people admitting their scams on their blogs, and solve a huge amounts of crimes that way...
In several countries (e.g. Germany, France... don't know about US) this is called computer fraud. And because he did it to sell the goods and make money, some countries would add "professional" and double the punishment.
OK on second reading, I guess it really was just stupidity of the poker site, for allowing withdrawal of the money after having received the bonus points. Sorry I misread, I thought he just gained the points for clicking the button repeatedly after a single deposit.
I represented myself in US Federal court on a civil rights action against a county and Sheriff's department, and prevailed. Had never previously picked up a law book. Gathered evidence myself, and circumvented the defendant's attempts at destroying some of that evidence. All things considered, it was a coup on my part.
I did not break any law in any country, or even violate a site rule. It's preposterous to call it unethical. I simply took advantage of a flawed system.