Protecting Yourself from Sports Betting Scams
If you are new to online gambling, something you most certainly want to avoid from the get-go are sports betting scams. The good news is all online scams are easily avoidable provided you take the necessary care and apply common sense to all situations.
Staying Safe and Avoiding Any Online Betting Scam
Online sports scammers have found a rich source of funds from the uninitiated through a variety of sports betting scams. They can take various forms that we’ll tackle in this article. Forewarned is forearmed.
It is estimated $6.9 billion leaves the accounts of duped online consumers each year and sports bettors are particularly vulnerable to scams. Online fraud can take many forms – from fake sports betting apps to believable sports investment products. Read on to learn about the common tricks you can easily avoid.
Scams and Unlicensed Online Sports Betting
While it is possible, it is not so common for sports betting fraudsters to go to the trouble of creating fake websites and apps to lure unsuspecting customers in. What bettors need to avoid is unlicensed bookies and casinos. Below we will run you through the simple steps you can take to make sure you are playing on a legit site.
More common are phishing attempts where players are duped into entering sensitive account details into fake websites set up purely for the purpose of extracting passwords and security information. Sports betting scams though phishing is as prevalent as any other online financial scam.
Phishing and Identity Fraud
If there is only one thing you take away from this sports betting scams page, it is to be aware of phishing. Phishing involves redirecting a player to a fake webpage in order to harvest personal details including passwords and credit card details. You will be directed (usually with some time urgency) to click a hyperlink.
The link destination may seem genuine, but it will have been set up specifically to look authentic and not like a fake sports betting site. Registered players may unwittingly enter log-in details and subsequently lose access to their account.
Players should also be wary of online betting phishing scams perpetrated through Google search results. For example, a common search by some players may be ‘Ladbrokes login’ to find their sign-in page. Scammers can try to rank in Google for that term and mimic the real page with their own, and subsequently steal the player’s details.
Fake Bookmakers
Although fake bookmakers and betting sites are a thing, they are not as prevalent as much more common fraud attempts such as phishing regarding sports betting. It is too much trouble for scammers to set up full fake sites so the main danger to players lies elsewhere.
The real online betting scams come from unlicensed casinos. These operators have no problem accepting bets from players, the difficulties for players will arise when you try to withdraw money. Barriers will be placed in your way; obscure terms and conditions will be quoted; hefty commissions may be charged.
It is imperative to avoid unlicensed bookies no matter how tempting the bonus offer appears to be or how generous the odds are on a sporting event. You have no legal means of recourse against bookies without a licence and these bookies know this and play hard and fast against the rules.
Fake Sports Betting Apps
In technical terms, it is much easier to create a fake sports betting app than a full-service fake sports betting website. The problems are like the ones outlined above, you are basically giving money away and will have no chance of being paid. You will likely be lured in by an attractive bonus offer.
To avoid these scams apps, players need to only click links from trusted sources i.e., from the bookmaker you use and consider safe. Players should only download the actual app from Google or Apple.
Dark Arts – Scams of the Legit Sports Bookmakers
All players should be aware of the typical tricks and scams from legal and licensed online bookmakers. As businesses, these companies operate to make a profit. If they can bend the rules and hide behind terms and conditions, they will. Some of these operations are similar to the types of online casino scams out there, too. Being aware of their little games can help you avoid losing more money than necessary.
Delay Getting Paid
The oldest trick in the bookmaker’s book is the slow payout scam. It works by delaying any withdrawal with the hope the player reverses the request and subsequently loses any profits. They will use several methods to delay payment but the most common is just taking their time which, unfortunately, will be in accordance with its terms and conditions.
A slightly more underhand tactic is pretending the player needs to provide more proof of identity. This method is contrary to the UK licensing regulations – LCCP 17.1.1(2) – A request made by a customer to withdraw funds from their account must not result in a requirement for additional information to be supplied as a condition of withdrawal.
This means a bookmaker cannot request extra information as a condition of withdrawal – any identity checks should have been made before any bets were placed. All the bookmaker is doing here is slowing down your withdrawal in the hope you will reverse it – one of the classic online betting scams!
Misleading Bonus Conditions
One way that bookies hook payers in is by offering welcome bonuses. Typically, you may be offered a free bet up to the value of your first losing bet. However, it is important to always look behind the bonus and read the terms and conditions because that is where you’ll see the bookmaker’s legal online betting scam awaiting you.
The terms may have strict conditions about the lowest odds you can bet on to claim a bonus. It may also stipulate you need to play through a bonus a fixed number of times. If it is 50x for a £50 bonus, a player needs to wager £2,500 before they can claim their £50. The bookmaker may be behaving legally but it is tantamount to fraud as players are duped. Buyer beware!
Bet Building and Same Game Parlays – Unrealistic Odds?
This final one is a little contentious. Bet builders or same game parlays (as they are known in the US), are bets on a series of events occurring either within one game or across multiple events. Combining these outcomes can quickly build up into a healthy-looking payout should they all be correct.
However, the odds you will be quoted are always much lower than the chance of these events occurring. For example, you may be offered 500/1 on your selections – not bad for a small investment! However, the true mathematical chance of these events happening could be closer to 1,000/1.
So, is this a true sports betting scam? In one sense it is because players are not really getting a fair run for their money. On the other hand, it is a fun wager. Gambling should be fun and same game parlays do provide that thrill and buzz which is one reason why most people bet. Similar to doing the lottery, they know in their mind they will not win but…Just maybe? This time? Just maybe?
Online Sports Betting Scams – Don’t Fall for Easy Money Scams!
An increasing number of sports betting scams online are not committed by phishing attacks or bookmakers but are driven by the innate human desire for stability in difficult times. Typically, players are tricked into handing over money in return for information.
Due to the cost of living crisis, players may resort to quick-fix solutions to try and improve their financial situation and thus be more susceptible to being targeted with ‘easy money’ offerings by questionable sources.
Match Fixing Scam
The match-fixing sport betting scam generally works like this: A victim is found through social media. The fraudsters target players who post about sports betting. They are contacted via private message suggesting they can receive information about a fixed sporting event taking place later that day.
An up-front fee is requested, and time pressure is put on the victim before the information is revealed. It almost seems plausible. However, it is just a scam. There is no fixed match. Hand over any money and you will receive information, but this is just made up on the fly by the fraudster.
We’ll look at paying tipsters for information below but certainly never pay for any sure-fire bets that are unsolicited. This is certainly the case where the player’s vulnerabilities have been exploited.
Not to be confused with more general crime around UK football stadiums which tend to target fans in general, match fixing scams work by targeting the greed of specific individuals who have often been identified by information and psychological profiling from social media posts and interactions.
Trading and Arbitrage Scams
This type of online betting scam is similar to typical financial fraud. Players are coerced into joining a betting syndicate offering believable profit on a lump sum investment. Usually, fraudsters will have gone to the trouble of producing glossy brochures and will couch everything in complex language to make it sound plausible.
Players being offered such financial instruments should tread very carefully. Any investment which looks to good to be true is not worth your time and money. Once again you may be approach by high-pressure salespeople with talk of it being a time-limited offer as well as jargon-filled talk about betting systems.
Affiliate Tipsters on Social Media
Tipsters, touts or in American usage scamdicappers have been around in one way or another for generations. Their latest incarnations appear liberally on social media. The modus operandi is to appear to be a successful gambler who shares his information with the masses.
A typical account will have thousands of bot followers to give the illusion of popularity and then offer sports betting advice. The scam works by encouraging players to sign up with a bookmaker through the fraudster’s affiliate link. In this way, a percentage of all losing bets are returned to the scam account.
While there may be some genuine tipsters on Twitter and other social media platforms, the affiliate scammer is easily spotted.
3 Ways to Spot an Affiliate Tipster
- They tend to offer a wide range of ‘advice’ from a myriad of sports and disciplines.
- The volume of tips of vast meaning some of their selections will win and be loudly boasted about.
- They appear to have other players interacting with the account but on closer inspection these will be accounts they run and are in effect talking to themselves.
As a rule, tipsters should be avoided and can be classed as one of the sports betting scams players can easily avoid. If you consider it logically, why would any tipster give away winning tips when by doing so the price will contract? It is against their financial interest.
Real-world Sports Betting Scams
Sports betting scams are thankfully less prevalent in the real world but on racetracks and other sporting events you may encounter touts – not ones selling tickets – but the ones selling alleged private information. These scamdicappers pose negligible risk as long as you are aware they sell widely different information to different people (not unlike the affiliate tipster scam).
Conclusion – How to Avoid Sports Betting Scams
All of the above online betting scams we have covered in this article prey on a near universal human weakness – the idea of getting something for nothing. Players can mostly avoid them by taking a step back from any situation and doing some thinking and research. It’s a cliche but if something seems too good to be true then it probably is!
Advances in internet security in recent years has meant potential scammers have had to try new approaches to elicit money illegally. By far the most common approach is social engineering. This describes the fact that the weakest part of any security set-up is human involvement.
Scammers use social engineering to trick people by phone, text or private messages into handing over important account information. To avoid any fraud from happening, let alone sports betting scams, people should take the security of any account very seriously.
Be alert to phishing scams, only play on sports betting sites that are licenced and don’t fall prey to the lure of easy money.
If you suspect that you have been the victim of an online betting scam then make sure you report it to Action Fraud, a service from Police UK to help put a stop to online fraudsters.