Page 25 - ABF Newsletter June 2025

Adjustments can always be made on the day (or later). Alternative payment methods can still be used and are tracked in the same area to ensure there’s a full financial reconciliation for the session. It’s entire- ly up to the club to decide what payment methods they accept (a few have almost mandated bridge credits, most still allow other methods although an increasing number are now cashless). Other items besides table money can be set up and charged for as well if desired (coffee, books, etc).
A bridge credits account is not specific to any one club – so if you play at multiple clubs (either as a member or a visitor) the same account can be used for any of them which use My ABF.
Both players and clubs can see every individual transaction in their bridge credits accounts at any time.
Players can set up an “auto top-up” arrangement which makes their account operate a bit like a public transport card – once their balance drops below $20, the account is automatically topped up by an amount they specify (between $50 and $300). Just to reiterate once again – no card details are ever stored, or even seen, by the ABF – they are all se- curely handled through Stripe. If they don’t want to do that they can top up manually – either directly themselves or (if their club accepts it) via their club.
There’s a load of details about bridge credits here:
https://www.abf.com.au/wp-content/up- loads/2024/04/MY-ABF-WHAT-ARE-BRIDGE- CREDITS-AND-HOW-DO-THEY-WORK.pdf
As usual there are clubs and players jumping at the chance to use the system; others that loathe the whole idea; and everywhere in between! We have tools to help clubs get up and running – and can upload balances from an existing system into My ABF for you if need be. Get in touch for more infor- mation. More information is available, as usual, on the My ABF resources page for clubs in the main ABF website:
https://www.abf.com.au/member-services/ my-abf-resources/clubs/
Administrators:
Make sure your email account is secure!
I sometimes hear concern about “My ABF security” etc. But it is interesting to note that in 4.5 years since My ABF launched there has not been a single inci- dent where My ABF security has been a problem.
What has happened, however, are two incidents where a player’s own personal email account has been compromised. Here’s what happened on each occasion:
1. A hacker was able to access a player’s email ac- count, use it to reset their My ABF password, and then log in as them. They then used the person’s stored card to top up funds into My ABF. But, be- cause of the system design, they were unable to get any of the funds out of My ABF. All they could do was transfer the credits to another My ABF account. The next morning when we found out what had happened we could reverse it all with no cost to the player.
2. More recently a tournament organiser’s email was broken into. We received an email request suppos- edly from her that an interim settlement for that tournament be paid to their “new bank account”. Al- though the responses appeared quite legitimate, we were suspicious. The BSB details provided were from a different state to the club involved when we did a lookup. When we requested an account name, we were given a name we had never heard of. A phone enquiry to the organiser (on holiday in South Africa at the time) confirmed she knew nothing of these emails and someone had broken into her account and was masquerading as her. Obviously no settle- ment monies were paid!
It was a deliberate design decision that nowhere in the system can a player or a club direct a payment out of My ABF to a bank account. All such payments are handled separately by the ABF head office. That design ensured that no funds were lost in either of the incidents mentioned.
It’s also worth reflecting that neither of these inci- dents were hackers breaking into My ABF. Nor were they hackers obtaining a player’s credit card details (which are not stored in My ABF anyway). Both arose because a hacker broke into the player’s own email account. These incidents show how important it is to protect your email. Particularly if you have admin- istration access to some parts of My ABF on behalf of your club or for a major tournament. Or of course if your email is used as a log in to other non-bridge systems!
Julian Foster, My ABF Manager julian.foster@abf.com.au
Australian Bridge Federation Ltd. Newsletter: June 2025
Page: 25