Fishy Sportsbook.com E-mail Not Phishy

On Tuesday, thousands of Sportsbook.com account holders received an e-mail from the site entitled, “Account Update Required”.  Inside, customers were asked to follow a link in the body of the e-mail to update their date of birth because “the date of birth…appears to be incorrect.”  The e-mail appears to be a “phishing” attempt, or a way for a criminal to fraudulently acquire information from a customer by posing as the company. 

The main reasons the e-mail looks like a phishing scam are: 

• The e-mail asks the recipient to click on a link to change the date of birth.  The first rule in avoiding these scams is to never click a link in an unsolicited e-mail.  Instead, go directly to the company website and access your account from there.
• It seems odd that Sportsbook.com would know that a customer’s date of birth is incorrect.
• The reply e-mail is support@sportsbook.com, yet in the “contact us” section of the website, that e-mail address is nowhere to be found. 

But fortunately, the e-mail is completely genuine, so if you did receive it, do not worry.  Accounts that were transferred from Paradise Poker had their dates of birth corrupted, which is the reason for the e-mail.  Sportsbook.com customer support had the following to say: 

“I can confirm it is a real e-mail sent by Sportsbook - we are ensuring we have all customer details correct before implementing a new account management facility on site for customers in the coming weeks.  Former Paradise/Sportsbook account holder accounts dates of birth were logged as Birth Date:  Mon Jan 1 1900 when transferred last year - these need to be updated for the current Sportsbook active betting accounts.  

This is completely secure and all information is protected under our privacy policy.” 

So, while it is still always wise to login to accounts directly from the company’s website, rather than following an e-mail link, in this case, the link is harmless.