Justin White was vacationing in New York on Sunday night when his wife Lisa noticed something was going on with the couple’s bank account. On the bank’s app, she saw five consecutive withdrawals of $500.
White, a 40-year-old from Tennessee, was flabbergasted. It was from “DRAFTKINGS INC. BOSTON, MA.”
“He was taking it out of my bank card which I used for my deposits,” White said.
White panics.
He went to his DraftKings account. He tried to log in three times. It locked him up. He asked for a new password. DraftKings said he texted her on the saved number.
And that’s when he realized he was definitely hacked. They changed his phone number so he couldn’t come back.
He looked up a customer service number for DraftKings.
He found none. There was a link to click for a live chat. He said it took him to another page that was not a live chat. He was asked to fill out a form that promised to return to him.
He went to DK_Assist on Twitter, a customer service page and saw this message. At least one of the responses seemed to come from a hacker, telling people how to do it and exclaiming “free money!”
“Not only was I unable to reach anyone, but you have the jubilant pirates,” White said.
When White went to his email to see if he could see proof of the takedown; his email he gave to DraftKings was filled with spam.
“They had 500 to 600 emails in there to cover up their withdrawals,” White said.
For its part, the answer from DraftKings came on this DK_Assist handle.
“We are aware of reports of customers having issues with their accounts, and are investigating,” the Tweet read. “If any customers are having issues with their accounts, please contact the Customer Experience team at support@draftkings.com.”
Rocky Anderson, a 35-year-old commercial real estate lender from Kansas, was watching his beloved Chiefs on Sunday Night Football when he saw the email arrive: $437 was withdrawn from his DraftKings account.
He was mortified when he saw that a hacker had tried to cut a check to an apartment in Houston, but the check was in Anderson’s name. Anderson took to Twitter and sent details of the transaction to Houston police.
“I’ve been to Houston twice in my life, and the third time might be to meet this guy,” Anderson half-joked.
On Sunday evening, Alvin Byers, a 31-year-old banking consultant from Colorado, was notified that he had made a $5 deposit into his DraftKings account. A minute later, he said he received an email deleting his entire account.
Byers went to his account and entered his email address, password, and two-factor authentication.
“They said they sent a code to a number ending in 8687, which is not my number,” Byers said. “So even though my password hasn’t been changed, my phone number has.”
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Byers was able to email DraftKings and the company acknowledged that his account had been frozen.
White, Anderson and Byers say the episode will force them to give their business to someone else.
“I feel like the exact person DraftKings is targeting,” Anderson said. “I do all the nudges and long shots hoping to make some money on the weekends. As soon as it’s over, I take everything out.
For White, it is also a matter of principle.
“I just can’t do business with a company that doesn’t have clear customer service,” White said. “I didn’t think it was possible with a company of this size.”
Shea Curran, a 35-year-old from Denver, was watching the Chiefs game on Sunday when he received an email saying there was a request to withdraw the $4,500 from his account.
His password was not changed one way or another, so he was able to log in and stop the withdrawal.
“But then I thought I should probably change my password and that’s when I noticed the two-factor authentication was going to a phone number that wasn’t mine.” he declared.
Curran said recent events have suddenly made him more skeptical of digital accounts.
“When you think about the funds you have in an account you trust and something like FTX happens, it changes you a bit,” Curran said.
A representative for DraftKings acknowledged the situation Monday morning but could not comment immediately.
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