1. The ‘fixed match’ con
Somebody messages you claiming a contact in the referee’s room, a bent official or a media executive who knows results in advance. The pitch is always the same: 100% fixed, guaranteed, but only if you pay now.
The trick behind it is called splitting the pool. Take 30 victims and three outcomes. Ten are told home win, ten are told draw, ten are told away win. When the match finishes, one group has received a ‘correct’ prediction. Those ten get the next ‘guaranteed’ game at a higher price, and the other twenty are blocked. Repeat a few times and a shrinking group is paying ever bigger sums to someone who knows nothing at all.
It isn’t only amateurs who run this. Cory Zeidman, a former World Series of Poker bracelet winner, was behind a US operation that advertised on national radio, used names that sounded like investment firms and claimed ‘privileged’ information on injuries, ‘dirty referees’ and fixed games. None of it existed. Prosecutors said it collected around $25 million in fees, and some victims emptied their savings and retirement accounts. Zeidman pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud and was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison in October 2025. A famous name is no guarantee of honesty.
2. The ‘scamicapper’
Self-styled experts with unbeatable systems, secret algorithms or a ‘ban’ from every bookie for winning too much. That last one is a red flag, not a badge of honour. Real betting is hard: even the sharpest tipsters lose often, and a long-run profit of a few per cent is a strong result. Anyone claiming 90%+ is selling something other than tips.
They come in a few flavours. Subscription sellers charge monthly fees for ‘confidential’ picks that are free online. ‘You bet, we split’ schemes have you stake on their behalf while the winnings never arrive. Fake VIP slots (‘Last 2 places!’) manufacture urgency, and influencer accounts flash edited slips, luxury cars and stacks of cash. Underneath it is the same arithmetic as the pool-splitting con: sell the same pick with different outcomes to hundreds of people and the seller is always right for somebody. If you want to see what sound betting looks like, our guide to football betting strategies for beginners is a better use of your time.
Scammers build copycat sites and apps that mimic real bookmakers. They can rank well in search, look polished and have friendly support, at least at first. Then the trap closes in stages. Small deposits and small withdrawals work, which builds trust. You deposit more, often chasing a ‘limited-time’ bonus. When you try to cash out a serious sum, the account is frozen for ‘verification’, a ‘security review’ or ‘irregular betting patterns’. Support asks for a passport, a utility bill, a bank statement, and never seems satisfied. Eventually the site stops answering and vanishes.
It is an industry. Group-IB’s researchers found more than 500 deceptive ads and 1,377 malicious websites in one campaign pushing fake betting apps, aimed at the Gulf states, Europe and Asia.
The giveaways: no clear licence details, vague or ever-changing terms, a freshly registered domain (a Whois lookup will tell you), apps asking for odd permissions such as contacts or SMS, plenty of withdrawal complaints on review sites, and a cashier that only takes crypto or bank transfers.
