EXPOSED: FAKE BETTING PAGES ON FACEBOOK.KENYANS LOSE 5 MILLION DAILY TO THESE SCAMMERS

By Mkikuyu Mjaka

Betting is all about gambling, of course with new betting companies emerging on a daily basis, and with the likes of Sport Pesa, Betin ,Betika, Betway, Betyetu, MCheza e.t.c at the forefront. So far many people have emerged Millionaires from their routine betting with some earning few thousands or even hundreds of thousands. Today we expose a few scammers or call them con men /middlemen for lack of a better word. Usually to win a client they begin with the catchphrase “I’m No Scammer” if you have met such a guy in your in box. Below are the few scammers we have been able to round up within a period of two months .This list should not surprise you.

1.       Russian Fixed Matches

2.       Genuine Bet

3.       Classic Bet

4.       VIP Betting Room

5.       Imperial Bet

6.       Imperial Fixed Matches

7.       USA Fixed Match

8.       Free Fixed Matches for All

9.       Guaranteed Wins 100% Fixed

10.   Fixed Matches 1X2

NORMAL BETTING PROCEDURE: Many people prefer to bet online while others use sms as the remaining few buy tickets and submit eventually.

The scammers in essence influence their clients to purchase their tickets as away of short cut to pre meditated wins which in turn turns to be unsuccessful in most cases.

Usually they do post free matches on their timeline which they refer to as “Free matches for confidence” or “ Free matches for trust” and are mostly quite predictable even without their help.

Different scammers have varying price tags for their tickets .For instance a ticket which consists of two games costs between   100 Euros to 150 Euros .This is an approximate equivalence of Ksh 11,000 to Ksh 18,000 .

WHY THEY USE EURO CURRENCY : These scam organizations are purely East Africans with most of them Kenyan based but they use the Euro currency to confuse Kenyans since it’s  not easy for Kenyans to trust fellow Kenyans even on genuine missions .For their transactions they prefer platforms such as Western Union, PayPal, Money gram and skirl whereas M-Pesa is hardly used

In most cases if one is able to convince the scammer beyond reasonable doubt that they have difficulties using or accessing the above money transfer avenues then M-Pesa becomes an alternative and that is how we got to know these scammers are mostly Kenyans.

The worst part of it comes when you lose from the ticket you bought and they still make you believe you can recover your money by acquiring a Recovery Ticket meant to dupe you an extra Ksh2,000 ,besides neither trusted nor helpful.

In one notorious case we followed up on a complain raised by a victimized client to VIP Betting Room where we found out that they have a tendency of hiding their timeline whenever they are about to post the free matches. They usually post the target matches after hiding their timeline though with doubtful scores which are believed to be edited after the end of the actual matches. We assume they deactivate their account hence no one can view it only to resurface later with the actual scores in those matches. Anyone who might have been asleep and woke up early in the morning after the page has been activated would think the predictions were successful yet they were edited. This practice has spread into other African countries with the latest complainant being Nigerian, who also fell a victim to VIP Betting Room. Check screenshot below.

IN THE CASE OF CLASSIC BET & OTHERS

They hide the game ids and the tips at first display to show their followers that the ticket of the day is ready. Soon after the ticket is bought by the client ,it’s sent to the client via his or her whatsapp with the Game ids and tips visible .

In case of a loss they then edit the ticket with matches different from the ones in the original ticket sent and post it on their timeline captioned as “My Yesterday Ticket was a BIG WIN”  yet they lost .The scammers do this to convince others who haven’t fallen victims of their dirty tricks to buy the next available set of tickets .Fake facebook accounts are also party to positive comments alongside the posts.

OTHER THAN THE SCAMMERS: International clubs also play a big role in what we call match manipulation .Some of the teams good at match manipulation include Toluca and Necaxa from Mexico and Tolima from Colombia. In the case of a past free match posted by Classic Bet on the 23^rd of October  in a clash between Monterrey and Toluca ,the match ended in a 1-1 draw as it was in the prediction.This means the scammers collude with certain club presidents, match officials and players to fix matches against FIFA laws.

FREE ADVICE TO ALL: Stick to old betting traditions and never give scammers attention since they are out to enrich themselves without you getting a value for your money. Always remember to bet responsibly.