Hi all, my name is David Bagdasarov, and I will help you take your first steps in the world of online betting at Metaratings. For a long time, I worked as a manager at bet clubs of the largest companies, and I know how the flip side of the betting business works. As an in-house analyst at Telecomasia.net, I help the users of our site to understand the diversity of betting operators, the rules of the game in them, special offers, and the system of legal betting operators.
Today, I will talk about how you can fall into the trap of a betting scam and incur significant financial losses.
Hitting the target audience
All of us, at one time or another, have started betting. It does not matter how or to what extent. The important thing is that along with first bets, we subscribe to all sorts of content-makers, news, free forecasts and follow them more and more (which is quite natural). Activity (subscribing, “likes,” etc.) makes us stand out from the rest, and we start getting approached discreetly by personal messages, friend requests, and random messaging.
Futile attempts to quickly win back the money we’ve lost
We receive these messages, and just a few of us take them seriously at first. But things change after a while. We read the prediction, remember it for curiosity’s sake, and of course, check the outcome (which is what the vast majority do). A powerful influence on this whole process is the endless conspiracy talk about how most matches are allegedly fixed, corrupt, and staged. In most cases, these predictions work, and if they don’t, we get an apology and “information” about a new fixed match. It’s a straightforward and very primitive scheme, but as they say, all ingenious things are easy! And here we are talking about a genius fraud. Sooner or later, some of us will repeat this bet with our own money because the betting novice has already got confused and is losing money in a row. It’s about time to “win it back for sure.”
Only free cheese is in a mousetrap
Let us move on to the most exciting part: the cheaters’ win-win scheme. They assemble a classical base of the target audience of several hundred or thousands of potential buyers (this is how any sales or credit organization operates). Next, the fraud divides its audience into two halves. They send one outcome to the first part, and the second gets the second outcome (just the opposite of the first).
Example: Audience of 500 people. Djokovic vs. Nadal. 250 people get a free “fixed bet” on TO (38.5). 250 people get a free “fixed bet” on TU (38.5). 250 people who get the correct prediction (which will happen since mutually exclusive outcomes) get congratulated and a confident plea for further cooperation. Some bite right away. Some still need time. But the whole problem is that you are already in this pipe, and sooner or later, you will get to the end.
According to the scheme mentioned above, those who are not ready to buy a paid “fixed bet” immediately get the message again.
An audience of 250 people. Tolpar vs. Izhstal. 125 of them receive a free W1 “fixed bet,” including ET. 125 get a free “fixed bet” on W2, including ET.
125 people from the original audience get a second consecutive “fixed game,” which will totally work. This is where it gets a lot more interesting. Doubts about credibility begin to fade rapidly. At the same time, unknown people write words of gratitude for sure winnings and easy earnings. You start to think that you have wasted your time and money.
You get offered one last try. The system works on the same method: split the audience, send out two mutually exclusive outcomes, done!
After the third correct “fixed match,” it is unlikely that a novice bettor will refuse. The system usually works as a detonator in 1 or 2 mailings. The later you dare to get involved, the higher the price you will have to pay. We are talking about VIP “fixed matches” in African football leagues with exorbitant odds.
Some scammers are very considerate to keep the part of the audience that they send the wrong “fixed bet” to the first time. They talk of unforeseen mistakes and wild accidents. And apparently, there is a pattern in that the conspiracy-prone person is also inclined to believe such nonsense.
Sooner or later, you buy this “hundred percent true information” and bet your hard-earned money on it. What happens then is unknown. You have fallen for a simple scam and are playing Russian roulette.
How do you avoid falling into the trap?
It is essential to know that it is simply impossible for someone on social networking sites or in chat rooms to know and simultaneously leak such information to strangers. Such information is likely available somewhere, and real “fixed matches” do exist. But believe me, no one can distribute such information in places monitored entirely (social networks).
Moreover, information about any possible arrangements for a particular match has 1-2 people who walk around offshore as carefully as possible and try to place obscure betting amounts. No one will ever share such information because whole athletes, federations, and criminal punishments are at stake. And why give away your source of income, thus attracting attention to unpopular markets that you are planning to bet on discreetly. After all, an overload (a large flow of bets) on an unpopular market is the main signal to the bookmaker that something is wrong with this event/event.
The best remedy to avoid falling into such a trap is to block this message and the user instantly. Don’t play with evil because you are playing by its rules.
Author’s bio: David Baghdasarov
Expert at Telecomasia.net. Betting market analyst.
Born in Yerevan into a family of physicists and mathematicians. Since childhood, I have followed almost all sports events. I’ve played basketball, volleyball, and table tennis. In early childhood, dreamed of becoming a traveler, and at a more mature age, a sports commentator.
For many years has worked in the field of betting and gambling in Russia. Quickly figured out the intricacies of administration and climbed the managerial career ladder. In Moscow, opened and headed betting points for leading betting brands, managed a VIP gaming club and attracted new customers.
I believe that statistics, psychology and financial literacy are important in sports betting. Their absence can only be compensated by total luck, but I have never met such lucky ones in my ten years of experience in gambling.
