Wherever money is involved, you better believe con artists are lurking and looking to steal it from the unsuspecting. This is especially true for the internet and the realm of online gambling. 

Although there are several legitimate gambling sites to be found, there is also an alarming number of imposters running scams and preying on less informed players. Because the industry is loosely regulated, to say the least, these crooks often go unpunished for their illicit deeds.

Popular Online Gambling Scams

Players who are not cautious may encounter numerous gambling scams online. Some of the most scams include:

Rogue Sites: You have probably noticed gambling sites with flashing lights and advertisements claiming that you can win big and secure huge payouts. These are the very types of websites you need to be aware of. 

Web criminals these days are very savvy and can clone an entire site with relative ease. From duplicating legitimate logos to implementing phoney payment forms, these sites often look so much like the real deal that even the most experienced of players can be duped.

Fake IGC Logos: Con artists are infamous for copying IGC (Internet Gaming Commission) logos and placing them on their sites. While this coveted seal is supposed to represent credibility and legitimacy, it could just be a trick that sways you into a scam that puts your funds at risk.

Phoney Casino Reviews: Online gambling scammers are known for luring players into their traps through casino reviews. These reviews typically praise a particular online casino only to give players the false sense of security needed to get them to a rogue site and sign over their sensitive financial information.

Protecting Yourself from Scams

Eluding an online gambling scam can be difficult for the new player looking for bets like college football odds, but there are a few ways to protect yourself. When shopping for a casino site or poker room to play at, keep the following tips in mind:

Never put your faith in a gambling site you are not familiar with. If you have never played there, give the free games a shot before trying your luck with any real money.

Don’t automatically fall for the IGC logo. If you have any doubts about the logo you find on a gambling site, shoot the IGC an email and ask if the operator is a certified and legitimate member.

Find yourself a reliable review site or newsgroup that recommends trusted gambling sites and stick with it. The gambling community knows more about online scams than any other party.

Lastly, find several websites you can trust to provide online gambling scam alerts. Some sites monitor the industry and are a great source for staying informed on the latest scams.

Identifying and Preventing Phishing in Online Gaming

The more respectable online casino operators take all the measures they can to ensure a safe and secure gaming environment. However, these efforts do nothing to stop hackers from attempting to break into accounts and divulging sensitive personal and financial information. 

These days, it is not uncommon to receive an email that looks as if it was sent from a casino you do business with but is indeed from a criminal looking to compromise your player account. This is a common internet scam known as phishing.

Sometimes these messages originate from what appears to be a valid casino email account. In most cases, the tone of the message is urgent, making it seem as if you need to act fast before some sort of action is taken against you.

These spoofed emails always try to persuade you to click on a link, redirecting you to a rogue website where you are prompted to enter the login credentials for your online casino account. The sole purpose of this scam is to steal your information to commit fraud or full-fledged identity theft.

Identifying Phishing Bait

Phishing is a very serious crime that directly threatens your identity and financial assets. Fortunately, avoiding this scam is quite easy. Like most threats, prevention is the best way to deal with this. Below we have provided a few tips to help you identify phishing emails:

Urgent Tone: As we touched on above, phishing emails often have a strong sense of urgency and portray that there is a major problem with your account. They will typically threaten to cancel your account if you do not respond with the requested information.

HTML Links: The second big indicator is the request to click on a provided link in the email to confirm your account details.

Suspicious URLs: Some phishing emails must be observed very closely to distinguish them from legitimate messages. This is because they often look identical to what you receive from online casino operators.   You can often tell the real from the fake by looking at the embedded links in the email. It could be as simple as including or excluding “www” attached to the website URL.

Poor Grammar: While their plans are often cleverly concocted, con artists often make obvious spelling or grammatical errors that give them away to the trained eye. These errors are sometimes done purposely to bypass spam filters but could keep you from making a tremendous mistake.

Protecting Yourself Against Phishing

Likewise, a few simple steps can help you protect yourself against phishing scams. Here are some important tips that work every time:

Avoid Clicking Links: If you believe the email you are reading could be spam or a phishing trap, never click on any link in the body of the message.

Do Not Opt-Out: Never opt-out or unsubscribe to a suspicious email. Spoofers often give you these options to formulate a list of active email accounts.

Keep up with Your Casino Account: You can protect yourself from phishing by knowing your account’s status. A reliable casino operator will provide an interface that makes it simple to know what is going on with your account at all times.

Conclusion

Always remember that the online gambling industry is not controlled and is barely regulated. Therefore, if you fall for a scam, there is no guarantee that you will be able to redeem your stolen money. This could be a long-drawn-out process in which your winnings make you the biggest loser.

Photo – unsplash