Results in the Dynamic Universal Pickleball Ratings system showed that Will Gardner and his mens doubles partner lost two straight matches in a tournament in Gwinnett, Georgia, on February 19th of this year. But on that day, Gardner, 24, was 2600 miles away, giving pickleball lessons in Salem, Oregon.
Another entry in the DUPR records showed that Gardner, whose doubles rating is 5.502, and his partner lost two of three matches in a tournament in Las Vegas on March 21st. On that day, Gardner was again giving lessons near his home in McMinnville, Oregon, nearly 1000 miles away.
Another highly-rated player, 55-year-old John Dixon of Burnaby, British Columbia, says at least 15 phony losses were entered into his DUPR account. Dixon says another player went onto the DUPR app, claimed his account, gave Dixon a fake name and bogus losses. The phony losses were not under Dixon’s name but were tied to his account. Dixon discovered this in April when he tried to register for the Seattle Metro Tournament.
Dixon says DUPR told him he had to open a new account. He did but it showed his rating had dropped from 5.40 to 5.14 due to the fake losses. While the DUPR drop might seem trivial to some, Dixon and other account theft victims feel violated, and don’t think the DUPR staff did enough to help them.
Dixon and Gardner say they discovered as many as 50 fake results involving at least eight other high-level players.
The headline on DUPR’s website is, “The World’s Most Accurate Pickleball Rating.”
We spoke with several players who claimed their accounts were stolen by one particular player. They provided screenshots from the DUPR app showing numerous suspicious scores. One entry shows the player in question gave himself wins in two straight matches on the same day over different opponents by the score of 25-0. “No match I’ve ever played goes to 25,” Gardner says. “Some go to 21, but 25 is ridiculous.”
Another entry shows the alleged account stealer and his partner winning three straight matches in a two out of three series. Of course, when the same team wins the first two matches, a third is unnecessary.
The victims provided me with the name of the player they claim stole their accounts. I found him online and we exchanged several emails. He says he is an 18-year-old high school senior and lives in a Dallas suburb.
“The matches in question were games I actually played with my friends,” he said. “When we logged them into DUPR, we had no idea that the system was connecting those entries to existing DUPR accounts or real players outside of our group. That was never intentional.”
No one is buying his explanation.
John Dixon says he’d like to tell the teen, “Please provide the name and contact information of a single friend who would corroborate your story.”
I am not identifying the player in question. This story is more about DUPR’s previously lax security, how easy it was to claim another player’s account, than it is the person who allegedly did it. And the player has already suffered consequences. More on that later.
Here’s how the accounts were stolen: The player clicked on the “Claim Your Account” button on the DUPR app using the name of a real, highly-rated player. He then entered an email address for himself and invented names so real players, like Dixon and Gardner, would not easily find out and come forward to say they never played in the match. The person who claimed others accounts rarely lost.
Dixon says the teen, “must have had 30 email accounts to sign-into DUPR under different names.”
Gardner provided a list of eight real players corresponding to the names he says were invented for each (photo below).
Another player whose account was stolen is 37-year-old Kaila Chekosky of Vancouver, British Columbia. Her name was changed in DUPR’s system to “Katie Cherish.” Chekosky told me, “I tried to register for a tournament, and I couldn’t because they couldn’t find my name in the system. He created complications and upended people’s lives.”
Gavin Maxwell, 28, of Victoria, British Columbia, was the Canadian national singles champ in 2022. His name on DUPR was changed to “Garrett Falls.”
“It’s a crappy thing to do,” Maxwell said. “I would ask why he feels the need to win so badly.”
When we first informed DUPR CEO Tito Machado of the allegations, he said, “The DUPR police will look at every match that looks suspicious. Every match needs to be verified.”
DUPR conducted a swift review, after which spokesperson Saad Chaker Metalssi told me that the player it investigated, “did in fact use the ‘Claim Your Account’ feature multiple times. He created or claimed several accounts using different email addresses and then used those accounts to enter fake results into the DUPR system.
“For the fake accounts that were manipulated, we’ve successfully restored those accounts to their rightful owners with the correct player names reinstated. This has ensured the integrity of those players’ records and removed any matches falsely attributed to them.”
DUPR has deactivated the teenager’s account, meaning he can no longer access his profile. Before it was deactivated this month, his doubles DUPR increased approximately a point, to 5.020.
The teen is also a pickleball instructor. We found a profile page for him on the “teachme.to” website, which links instructors with players. He claimed to be certified by the United States Tennis Professionals Association (now called the Racquet Sport Professionals Association). However, an RSPA spokesperson told me, “We can confirm that he isn’t a member and hasn’t been certified by us.”
The player’s “teachme.to” profile also noted that he is sponsored by Selkirk as part of the pickleball company’s Emerging Pro program, which consists of up and coming players.
Selkirk spokesperson Brynn Grissom said, “After DUPR confirmed misconduct and revoked the player’s account, Selkirk terminated the sponsorship in accordance with our commitment to integrity in pickleball.”
The player’s “teachme.to” profile has since been deleted.
Why was it so easy for the teenager to claim other players’ accounts?
DUPR spokesperson Saad Metalssi: “As the first organization to offer a rating based purely on match results, players began signing up and claiming their results almost immediately. To support this growth, we intentionally made the account claim process simple. The majority of players are good actors, and tournaments were quickly adopting DUPR, so reducing barriers was key to building early trust and adoption.
“The trade-off was that a few bad actors attempted to exploit this process.”
John Dixon says, “Any account that had not been proactively claimed by the rightful owner was vulnerable to theft by [this player] or an equivalent idiot.”
DUPR records show that the player who allegedly claimed others accounts partnered in several matches with two players who have the same last name as his and may be his siblings, although he would not confirm that. DUPR spokesperson Metalssi says of those two players, “Their accounts have already been restricted following the discovery of suspicious activity associated with them. We’ve reviewed their match history and flagged multiple entries that did not meet our verification standards.”
Dixon and Gardner are concerned about the bigger picture, for the overwhelming majority of players who are honest.
DUPR’s Saad Metalssi said, “Today, players can only claim an account automatically if they use the exact same email already linked to that profile. If the email doesn’t match, or if no email is attached, our support team steps in to manually verify the player’s identity. This includes confirming personal details like name, location, and match history, and cross-checking with third-party sources such as tournament records.
“Any suspicious claim attempt is flagged immediately and investigated before access is granted.”
Will Gardner says, “I think [the player who allegedly stole his account] just wanted to puff out his chest to make his rating better so he could brag that he was a higher rating than he actually was.”
Metalssi said, “Looking ahead, our product roadmap includes enhanced security measures such as ID verification and on-site player verification to further safeguard account access and rating accuracy.”
John Dixon, Will Gardner and the other players whose accounts were stolen are hoping that from now on, all recorded results will be accurate and that they and other players don’t take a loss for a match they did not play in.
Or a match that was never played at all.
Thoughts of the week, not all pickleball
· I don’t play in tournaments or care about my rating, but if I did, I’d feel violated and ticked off if someone made up phony matches involving myself or other players. I understand why those whose DUPR accounts were stolen are upset. It’s sad that some people who aren’t professional players, or anywhere close to it, take the game so seriously. Or think that claiming others accounts is funny. I was conflicted about naming the 18-year-old who allegedly stole the accounts and thought long and hard about it. After I emailed him many tough questions I requested a couple of photos of him and he actually sent them, knowing the piece was not flattering. I chose not to identify him because I thought doing so would make the piece more about a young wise guy who got over on the system as opposed to DUPR’s poor security. I also thought he might actually enjoy the attention. Plus, the teen has already suffered the aforementioned consequences, losing his Selkirk sponsorship among them. Hopefully he learns from this.
The alleged DUPR thief invented names for real players so they wouldn’t find out. Some did.
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· While in New York and New Jersey recently, I went to a Mets game. I shared Jets season tickets for 15 seasons (lucky me) and thought how much more civil baseball fans in general are than football fans. The things some liquored-up guys at NFL games say to women are despicable. Reminds me of a routine by the late, great comedian George Carlin, comparing the two sports.
· I have been watching Hard Knocks: Training Camp With the Buffalo Bills on HBO Max. As a long-suffering Jets fan I’m sick of their owner, the organization, the inept offense. I have decided that this season I am rooting for the Bills to win the Lombardi Trophy. Call me a bad person and disloyal. As the great Peter Finch said in the classic 1976 film, Network, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.”
· I am also exhausted and beyond frustrated from living and dying with the Jets every Sunday for 60 years. And freezing my butt off during many games at old Shea Stadium.
· Can you imagine if the previous DUPR security setup was the same for your online bank accounts? Yes, I know pickleball shouldn’t require nearly the same layer of protection. But now, sadly, it has come to that.
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