Popular Blackjack and Poker Game Sites on Alert for Identity Theft

LONDON, May 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Online companies are now on high alert after the recent identity theft case where Fouad Mourtada was sentenced to three years in jail by the Moroccan government for opening a false Facebook profile in the name of the Moroccan Prince, Moulay Rachid.

Recently, BackgammonMasters Mexico found several users in their systems that opened accounts with names of famous persons such as Prince William, Madonna and Tom Cruise. After checking the activities and locations of these users they found them to be fake.
Spokesperson for http://www.backgammonmasters.com says, "We've seen a trend in the industry for people to register popular names, as we call them "Gold usernames" such as backgammonking, pokerking, blackjack-king and celebrity names which are just as popular. We see people in game forums even buying and selling these usernames. For these people its status, kind of like having a custom license plate. As long as the games are for fun, we are not concerned."
Although these players only played in fun money games such as Poker, Backgammon and 21 Blackjack, companies now are keeping an eye on these types of accounts after such an extreme case involving a major company like Facebook.
Some governments on the other hand seem to be concerned and do not take lightly insults to their leaders. Mourtada was released after serving 43 days of his term due to pressure from petition signers and Human Rights groups around the world. But this case has raised awareness that in some cases, a username is no longer just a username. Mourtada's lawyer, Ali Ammar said, "This is a cultural problem; this is the first time that a Moroccan poses as a very important personality on the internet. This is already a common practice in European countries."

News Added: 09 May, 2008

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