New High Stakes Scam – Max Ashkar Wins $2 Million With Fraud?

2011 does indeed seem to be the year of online poker scams; add Max ’mexx86’ Ashkar to the list, who is accused of using a Trojan virus to win over $2 million in total.

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Max 'mexx86' Ashkar

The latest scandal in the online poker world broke out during the EM Championship in Austria, when an Austrian and a Swiss player reported that a German person who resides in London had installed a Trojan virus on their laptops, making their hole cards visible when playing against them online.

The two players confronted the scammer in a hotel room during the poker event, who then confessed to the fraud. Later, however, the player referred to as “Maximilian A.” in the official reports, denied any involvement in the scam to the police.

According to the information of 2p2 and German website Hochgepokert, “Maximilian A.” is actually Max Ashkar, a regular player at the high stakes tables under the screen name ‘mexx86.’ Ashkar has won €400,000 from the aforementioned players following the alleged installation of the Trojan, although the assumed number of his victims is much higher, around a dozen. His total winnings acquired by fraud can be over $2 million.

Ashkar is likely to have used a simple USB drive to install the virus in a couple of seconds on the laptops of the high stakes players who had let him use their machines during live events or parties. Ashkar is known to have been trying hard to make friends with several high stakes pros in tournaments and also via Facebook, most of them recognising him as a nice guy.

The Austrian police are investigating the case.