Let’s start with the most common fraud scheme that everyone is becoming sick and tired of. It’s about selling of “fixed matches”. This scheme has proved successful largely due to the fact that there are so many match-fixing cases in sport. News about them is regularly published on sports sites and on the website of The Bookmaker Ratings.
Having read another news about the unmasking of a network of match fixers, a player starts thinking about how great it would be to have this information and bet large sums of money without risk. After all, you know the outcome, if not the exact score of the match, already in advance! And the future millionaire has only one thing left to do — to find people who have the information about fixed matches and are willing to sell such.
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It’s only a very small number of people that actually understand match-fixing business. These are usually professional betting players, high rollers, who have an informant or person that bets on match fixing and is looking for a partner that has an account with a large sum on it. You need solid investments in this business. By the way, you can read about this in our interview with tennis match-fixing organizers.
Where is our future millionaire going to? To the Internet. Here you can find hundreds of sites selling information about supposedly fixed matches. And if you use social networks or you’re a member of an online sports betting community, then you don’t need to look elsewhere: you will be found and offered to buy fixed matches, even sometimes in wholesale!
However, all these are nothing but a big scam. We’ll explain why this is so.
First, up to the very end, only a very narrow circle of people know that a match will be played according to a pre-known scenario. This narrow circle of people includes the organizer of theatrical representation (or group of organizers), the client who bought the information or ordered for the match and is going to bet, and the athlete (or athletes).
Why is that? Fixed matches are often organized in medium-sized competitions and not all bookies accept bets on such matches. It may be that only two or three bookmakers have the right match in their line.
How will they react to the fact that newly registered players already have dozens of accounts, and are betting on the same outcome? The answer is obvious — the bookies will remove the match from their line, while the bets can be voided.
The fewer the number of people that know about a fixed match, the higher the likelihood organizers will be able to earn from that match.
Information leakage is possible and actually occurs frequently, but usually right before the match, when the client has already betted, and then someone — an informant or athlete — leaks the information.
First, such information is distributed in offline among “themselves” (and even if it gets on the internet, you’ll not be able to determine whether such information is that which is being sold). Secondly, the odds for a real fixed outcome will go down sharply due to leakage.
What are the tricks used by scammers to deceive bettors? I’ve been in the business of betting and sports forecast for a long time now, but fraud schemes on selling of fixed matches have remained the same over the years.
The simplest fraud scheme: a screenshot of a big at high odds. As envisioned by the fraudster, this should be an argument for the credibility of his information.
It may be screenshots of previous wins or bet on the next game, whose information is being offered to you to buy. The team names are of course blurred over. You only see the high odds and large bet. Why is this a fraud? It is because today, it’s very simple to forge any screenshot. Photoshop is not even required here. Everything is done by simply editing the source code in the browser.
Also, many not-particularly-advanced fraudsters take the website of bookmaker Betcity as an assistant, where there is a guest entrance with virtual money. There, you can bet 100,000 virtual rubles for any event, make a screenshot and present it as a bet on a supposedly fixed match.
Next, you will not necessarily be asked to make an advance payment for the fixed match: it costs the pseudo-informant nothing, you are given a bet at random, and that’s the easier way for him to win your trust. If this bet wins, you’ll have to pay for it. Moreover, some schemers don’t pursue short-term easy earnings but rather seek to lure the customer by offering the first fixed match for free.
Many bettors forget themselves when their first bet wins. Even if the person initially doubted the honesty of the informant, after this “success”, all doubts will be dispelled, and he falls into the trap. The bettor will be willing to pay for the next match and often with pretty decent amount of money.
However, the fact that one or a couple of bets won is not evidence by no means! It’s share luck and nothing else.
In addition to the outcome or total, there is a different kind of information that most impresses bettors — betting on the exact outcome of a match. Here schemers arm themselves with the following trick: the scammer sends different information to clients. He gives the score 1-0 to one group of people, while the other group, he tells 1-1, and so on. The same scheme can be used on home/draw/away market.
Some potential clients receive information that is true and already get trapped. I personally conducted such experiments: I wrote from different accounts to such “informants”, received different forecasts for the same match and I was able to expose them.
South American football is mostly used as a field for this kind of creative scam: Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador. I don’t know why, but that’s the truth. Perhaps, the calculation is that football in the region is not that yet particularly saturated with money; and to secure a decent life, football players are forced to regularly fix matches.
Also enough are those who are supposedly future party to a fixed match –one of the players from the home team. Or a close friend of the player. There are sometimes fantasy, but in general, the scheme is the same and has not changed for many years.
Let me list 4 rules that will save you from the fraud of selling fixed matches:
1) Always remember one simple rule as a dogma: there is no information about fixed matches on the internet! This is just a beautiful fairy tale. An attempt to turn this fairy tale into practice will eventually lead you to financial losses.
2) If you managed to bet money on a pseudo-fixed match, don’t pay anything, even if you win. You were just lucky! If you were given information on the exact score of a football match, you took the chance, and betted money and miraculously won, it means only one thing: today is your day! Try not to get caught on the hook. Or to be on the safe side, simply don’t communicate with schemers!
3) Don’t try to check “informants”. Most often, they fail completely with their “fixed matches”. However, it could be on their lucky happy day and doubts can creep in into your mind. But this, again, is always just a fluke. They were just lucky!
4) If you have decided to join a discussion, ask the fraudster one simple question: “Why are you sitting on the social media and trying to sell your information for a measly 500 rubles instead of getting on the ball and borrowing as much money as possible from friends and acquaintances to bet more or find a big client?”. Fraudsters almost always have nothing to say to this question.