Same IP, same device, same story: Judge in Brazil shuts down fraud claim

A judge in Minas Gerais has rejected a bettor's attempt to recover roughly BR22,300 ($4,358) frozen by a betting platform over suspected fraud, also denying his request for moral damages. 

Judge Alessandro de Abreu Borges, of the Special Court's Single Jurisdictional Unit, ruled the platform acted within its rights when it suspended the account.

The plaintiff had built up a balance of BR22,310.68 on the platform after placing multiple bets, before the company unilaterally froze the funds, citing a violation of its terms of use, specifically, using multiple accounts to circumvent its betting system. 

He sued for release of the account, payment of the withheld balance and moral damages.

The platform argued the suspension followed its terms of use after its anti-fraud systems flagged irregular activity, showing that the plaintiff's account and a third-party account shared the same IP address and hardware/software identifier (UUID), indicating both were linked to the same device. 

The judge found this evidence sufficient to establish the suspension was lawful, noting the address the plaintiff gave in court matched the one registered to the third-party account. 

He also pointed to a pattern in the platform's records: when the plaintiff's main account hit a betting limit on a specific market, the third-party account, on the same device, was used to place the same bet.

The judge cited Law 14,790/2023 and article 55 of the Finance Ministry's Ordinance 1,231/2024, which require betting platforms to police and prevent fraud, as grounds authorizing the account freeze. 

"By closing the account and invalidating profits from irregular operations, the defendant exercised a recognized legal right, upholding the good faith that should also guide consumer conduct," the ruling stated.

Last month, Brazil's Finance Ministry reported last month that 925,000 people have now enrolled in the country's self-exclusion program.