A post on Two Plus Two that popped up on Thursday detailed an incident involving Trojans being placed on laptops during the European Poker Tour’s stop in Barcelona, Spain. The story, according to Jens Kyllonen: “Room key doesn’t work, go down to reception for a new key, come to the room to notice the laptop is missing, go back down, in less than 10 minutes go back up, and the laptop has reappeared. We are for sure not the only ones. Tell everyone you know at Barcelona Arts to not play on their laptops.”

Later in the thread, PokerStars Head of Poker Communications Lee Jonesconfirmed that the original poster was accurate in his rendition of events and commented, “We’re only aware of two cases, but obviously there could be more. Our security manager is working with the Hotel Arts security people to find out who did this.”

Jones advised players in Barcelona to store their laptops in the hotel room’s safe or purchase an anchoring cable, change the computer’s password, and run virus software just in case a Trojan had been implanted. He added, “I know it’s a hassle, but wiping the computer clean and reinstalling everything before you play online poker with it would not be a terrible idea.” Some posters lamented that they did not know or didn’t have the resources to reinstall their operating systems.

Commenting in the thread was Randal RandAllin Flowers (pictured), who wrote of a similar incident at another EPT stop: “Jakoon had some **** happen to him at the Deauville stop that was pretty similar… I don’t wanna be specific to give thieves a how to guide, but they don’t even need me b/c it’s not hard. EPT has to step up security at these expensive hotels they make you qualify in pkg for.”

Also giving a suggestion was Sorel Imper1um Mizzi, who opined in the same thread, “One thing that’s shocked me in the past is that most European hotels don’t ask for ID when someone is requesting a new room key… Last name and room # usually suffice… Perhaps PokerStars should ensure that the hotels they’re putting their qualifiers in make sure to check ID before issuing a new room key.”

Jones did not give a follow up post in the Two Plus Two thread.

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