Scam 1
So how does this apply to the common horse racing scam? Well it works like this. You get a mail shot through the post, or sometimes a call on the phone, from a person who claims to work for a certain stable or trainer etc. He or she tells you that they have a horse that has been specially laid up for a gamble on Saturday. This
horse will win and they want to get as much money on it as possible. The bookies have restricted how much they can put on so what they are prepared to do is tell you the name of the horse that is going to win, in return you put some money on it for them. When the horse wins, you send them the winnings and of course you can
put as much of your own money on the horse as well and enjoy those winnings for yourself.
This all sounds very reasonable. They ask you to put £200 on the horse for them. £200 of your own money. Are you beginning to see how this works?
So you put £250 on the horse, £200 for them and £50 for yourself.
If the horse wins, you send them the winnings for the £200 bet.
You're very happy and can't wait for them to send you the next
'sure thing'. But what if the horse loses? Then you have lost the
lot. You can rest assured they won't be sending you a cheque for
the stake money.
So what has happened is that you have taken all the risk. If it
loses, they don't lose anything, if it wins, they win money.
But how do they choose which horse is going to win?
This is the what the whole scam is based on. It costs a lot of
money to do a mail shot or to purchase a list of telephone numbers
so the scammers have to have a way of making money from this.
What they do is choose a race with only six or seven runners. When
people call their office, or they call you, they give you the name
of one of these horses. The next person to call, they give the name
of another horse in the same race, and the next, and so on.
Basically, if they speak to 6000 people, they will give each 1000
people a different horse in the race.
What happens is that 1000 people will have put money on the winning
horse and send them the winnings. They then also have a pretty
guaranteed 1000 people willing to do it again for them. Its just a
matter of record keeping for them... and of course telling blatant
lies to scam money out of people.
I must confess I've been stung by this scam myself many years ago.
I quickly learned my lesson but even now I get calls occasionally
from people offering their 'odds-to' service. Odds-to just means
you putting money on a horse for them... and every time it is a
guaranteed scam.
Derren Brown revealed the secret to the 'system'. He e-mailed
thousands of people with a different horse in the same race. To the
losers he e-mailed that the system obviously wasn't working too
well but thanks for trying. To the winners he e-mailed telling them
that he always wins and heres the next bet. A process of
elimination and there will always be one person that goes all the
way through all six bets and thinks he's a genius.
So if anyone ever tells you they have a stable gamble lined up and
asks you to put some money on it for them then either give them
some verbal abuse.. or if you feel particularly charitable, agree
to do it but don't let them know that you know what is going on. If
the horse wins they will contact you asking for the money... get
the address off them and report them to the police.
Scam 2
There is another old scam that just seems to keep on going despite
getting shut down frequently by the DTI. They just open up again
under a different name (same address though quite often).
This always comes as a mailshot. I had one this week actually. This one was called 'xxxxxxxxxxxx Sporting Investments of xxxxxxxx' and is the same as all the others offering their 'service'. This one says:
"Single Investment of £200 Stake Money to Give £320 Per Month"
"We supply all betting advice. All bets are placed by us!"
Sounds good doesn't it? You send them £200 and they will bet on the horses with it and send you the profits which will be around £320 every month. Out of the profit they will take 9% commission for doing all the work.
They then present a little graph of what you can expect to win with whatever amount you invest: £300 gives £490 minus commission, £500 gives £800 a month, £1000 gives £1600 a month etc.
It goes on to say "Maximum stake money is £15,000. Only 6% commission on £500 or above".
So immediately you are attracted to investing at least £500, but no doubt the old greed monster in your head starts thinking... well £1600 a month tax free for doing no work at all sounds pretty good, and all I have to do is send them £1000. I'll be in profit after my first month!
So what happens when you send them money? I know you are now thinking who on earth would fall for this... but the glossy brochures are very compelling and the greed monster can be very influential in even the most disciplined of minds.
So you send in your money and they give you a telephone line to call to check what bets are being placed each day... just so you know its all above board. But for some strange reason, just as you have got involved, they seem to have hit a bit of a bad patch.
These horses don't seem to be winning. Some do at very short prices, but most lose. Two months later, they write to you to explain that due to a very, very unusual bad patch they have managed to lose your entire stake money. They are really sorry
about this but can assure you its a one off and things have just recently turned around. So, in order to win back your stake money and get you back on the road to profits, would you be so kind as to deposit another amount to use as stake money. And, to be fair to you, they won't even charge any commission until they have fully
recovered your balance.
And yes... some people will give them the benefit of the doubt and send in even more money.
DO NOT BE FOOLED! This scam is as old as the hills. All they do is pocket your money, put out a few random bets and tell you they have lost it all. Since this is an unregulated industry, unlike the Financial services industry, you don't have a leg to stand on. What are you going to do, take them to court?
"Yes, your honour, I gave them £1000 to bet on horses for me and they lost it... can I have my money back please?"
No chance.
So be warned. If you are ever offered any kind of service whereby they will place bets for you... steer clear. I do know there are bet placement services available, or there used to be, which may be legitimate, but why take the risk? With betting bots available you don't need other people to place bets for you if you have to work
during the day.
Scam 3
The Glossy Brochure Brigade.
This one is straightforward. If you are on a gambling mailing list you will already have had plenty of these. You get a big glossy brochure through the door called so and so investments, or Equine Profits etc. etc. and it is from a 'famous' stable that have an unrivalled record of producing winners. They've won roughly £27,000
a month since 2005 and for only £20 you can get a months worth of tips. How can you lose? Look at their results too! Three pages of results showing a nice healthy profit of fifty million quid every week. Brilliant.
So you join up, get telephone number to call and get very excited about winning £20,000 by Tuesday. The first tip wins at 4/6. You had a tenner on it so you've only got to win another £19,993 now.
Unfortunately, that first winner seems to be the end of a 'winning run' and you now enter a 'bad patch'.
Need I go on?
Ok, to be fair, there are good services out there, and they do have bad patches. Unfortunately there are more terrible services out there that only ever have bad patches and rely on their high turnover of subscribers for their income. They know they won't keep subscribers but they don't care as long as they get enough to cover
the costs of the mail shot and make a healthy profit.
From my experience, as a good rule of thumb, the glossier the brochure, and the more money they claim you can win, the less likely it is to be true. Use some common sense.
The same applies to Internet based promotions. The sales page is designed to get you to buy. If the website is promising tens of thousands of pounds profit from five pound stakes then again, use your common sense. Of course, it's possible that the site is telling the truth, but it's not likely.
Don't let this put you off though. There are plenty of legitimate systems and services available both online and offline that do deliver what they promise, and I've noticed recently that there seem to be more and more genuine individuals or businesses that do actually strive to offer what I would call 'proper' customer
support.
BE LUCKY!!
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