Hacker Scammed Millions From Poker Pros Patrik Antonius & Johnny Lodden

[Mika Ollila]

Evening newspaper Ilta-Sanomat from Finland ran an interesting story today about our local poker pro Patrik Antonius having been scammed half a million by a hacker a few years ago. According to Ilta-Sanomat a local poker magazine coming out later this week on Friday will have a story about the case told by Johnny Lodden, another very skilled poker pro saying he lost millions to the same Swedish hacker who managed to place a trojan to his computer through Messenger that enabled him to see his hole cards.

This case has been talked about on the net before, and the hacker is alleged to be Mohammaded Koswa with usernames Fast_Freddie and The_Terrorist. Terrorist himself claimed having been hacked, and stories about Hells Angles and/or Bandidos connections have been mentioned, that could have hampered the pro's enthusiasm for recollection. But without going in to all that speculation, I'll post a translation from Finnish to English of the newspaper story for you to read:

Ilta-Sanomat 18.02.2009 15:57
Poker star Patrik Antonius was scammed a huge amount
Swedish hacker broke into Patrik Antonius's computer and stole half a million euros from the Finn.

Finland's most successful poker pro Patrik Antonius became the target of a clever computer criminal a couple of years ago.

Friday's Pokerisivut-magazine reports that a Swedish hacker broke into Antonius's computer and stole half a million euros from the Finn.

This was revealed to Pokerisivut by one of the world's best poker players, Norwegian Johnny Lodden who lost virtually all his money to the same hacker.

- "Patrik Antonius lost 500 000 euros to the same fraudster. I lost a lot more, many millions", says Lodden.

The hacker was very clever. He went to poker sites to play the biggest possible games, where he was confronted by the world's best and richest poker sharks.

The hacker asked his opponents to talk with him in Messenger, and this way managed to get their computers infected with a software which allowed him to see their cards.

According to Pokerisivut magazine Antonius stopped playing against this person after losing half a million, because he noticed that something was wrong. Lodden was not so clever.

One of Lodden's friends Jasper Pääkkönen was once present when Lodden lost money to the scammer.

- Johnny played and lost every pot. Johnny said, "that guy can see my cards", but he just could not stop playing, says Pääkkönen.

Lodden eventually lost nearly all of his bankroll of a few million to the scammer. When he finally hired a hacker of his own to examine his computer, a so called trojan virus placed by the fraudster was found, which enabled the hacker to see all hands that Lodden played.

Revelations of the fraudster led to his dismissal from the poker community. He was never got in to court however.

- He cheated a lot of money from many people and then disappeared from the face of the earth. He hasn't been seen in anywhere in a couple of years.

[C8H10N4O2]

Not sure if this is a joke or not, but after reading this... I got a message from user "Okus" wanting me to play poker with him on Tilt and use MSN to talk because it is easier to talk on MSN.

[overtop69]

I would not be totally surprised if this is true. I had heard of such software a few years back. And also know that those same softwares would not be any good now....so I'm not worried. I guess it is still possible...though I doubt it....but I am in no position for it to be worth it for a hacker to do it to me anyways

[C8H10N4O2]

I would not be totally surprised if this is true. I had heard of such software a few years back. And also know that those same softwares would not be any good now....so I'm not worried. I guess it is still possible...though I doubt it....but I am in no position for it to be worth it for a hacker to do it to me anyways

Oh, I fully believe the article, I just don't know if the PM's I got were supposed to be a joke because of that thread or not. If they were a joke or if they were real, it doesn't matter because Okus is blocked for me now. It wouldn't be worth his time to take my entire bankroll either... especially on tilt.

[LyndaNova]

Thanks so much for the post, Mollila!!!
I had not heard of this before. Wow. The bad guyz sure do get creative now and again!
How terrible for the people who got robbed!
The lesson here is: Tell your fellow poker players that you don't use instant messenger!

[Clearwheezy]

well, now i feel like an @$$ for asking people to talk on AIM. and i still haven't had a legitimate sweat session.