Fake Cricket Puts Online Gamblers in a Sticky Wicket
Fraud takes many forms, and the more clever, the more likely it is to gain widespread attention once it is discovered. A case in point: a story out of India earlier this month involving an elaborate fraud consisting of a phony cricket league, Russian bettors and the technology that made it all possible.
On July 11 The Times of India broke the news that police in the remote farming village of Molipur had busted a fake cricket league. The four primary suspects had recruited more than 20 local farm workers and out-of-work youths to stage fake cricket matches, complete with phony uniforms and men posing as umpires, according to police. The purpose of the charade was to convince gamblers in Russia, through an intermediary based in that country, that the matches were real and, therefore, worth betting on. To help sell the scam the fraudsters livestreamed the fake matches on YouTube so the Russian bettors could watch for themselves. They set up five video cameras and floodlights on vacant farmland to make the production look as real as possible, never showing fans in the stands – because there were no fans or stands. They even used fake TV announcers and added crowd noise to lend an air of authenticity to the livestream. While gamblers in Moscow and two other Russian cities placed bets on the games via the messaging app Telegram, the organizers of the fake cricket matches told players on the field what to do to get the desired outcome, and ensure the Russian bettors lost. Before they were caught, the perpetrators had scammed thousands of dollars from the Russians over a two-week period.
Fixing sports has been around since, well, at least the 1919 White Sox scandal, but what makes this incident so notable is how the fraudsters, using readily available technology and a little ingenuity, were able to pull off a rather sophisticated scam, that is, until their cricket production aroused the suspicions of a local police officer. When investigators searched laptops used by the organizers as well as the players’ phones they realized something was amiss. The four organizers have now been charged with criminal conspiracy and gambling. The New York Times quoted one of the investigators as saying “These are new criminals with a technology bent of mind.”
And that’s really the point: As long as there is new technology, someone will come up with a new way to use it for nefarious purposes. In this case, the men figured out that, with some high-definition cameras, an app that easily crosses borders, and access to “actors” willing to help them sell their story, they could easily dupe a group of people whom they would never meet and obviously felt no moral obligation toward.
Stories like this serve to remind us that what we see on our electronic screens, both big and small, often is not real, and that social media posts promising miracle cures, websites touting a company’s credentials and glowing reviews and, yes, even YouTube videos of Indian cricket matches simply cannot be taken at face value. As the Russian gamblers who were swindled found out, a single source – especially one on social media – isn’t enough to earn one’s trust these days. Had they taken the time to look for results from the cricket league in a credible Indian newspaper or on ESPN they might have figured out something was wrong. In an era when what we see online often is not what it seems, the need for due diligence, even for gamblers, has never been greater.