3 ms·

Reminds me of a simple stock scam: 1. Send e-mails to a bunch of people claiming to have a great stock pick. Tell half of them to buy and half to sell short.

by gregmac 10y ago

Reminds me of a simple stock scam: 1. Send e-mails to a bunch of people claiming to have a great stock pick. Tell half of them to buy and half to sell short. 2. Wait a week. If the stock went up, do the same thing but send your new pick only to the half that got your buy recommendation, and if it went down, send it to the other half. Anyone who saw your incorrect prediction never hears from you again. 3. Repeat a couple more times. 4. Now ask the people on your list to pay you to continue getting your stock picks -- after all, at least as far as they've seen, you've been 100% right on every pick you made.

noname123 10y ago
Yes, this scam is live and well in the sports betting world. There is even a CNBC reality TV show called "Money Talks" that documents and encourages this; as documented by the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xiiv-s-DRs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xiiv-s-DRs http://www.vipsportslasvegas.com/ http://www.vipsportslasvegas.com/ The recipe is: 1. Cold call people on a lead sheet for people indicate interest on placing bets on sports games. 2. Sell interested folks with a "two week package" for $250; seems pricey, but the name of the game is to filter out the minnows catch gullible whales. You want folks who are "vested" on this and prove they have the cash to be scammed. Double-side your bets or smarter yet, side your bets by the probability implied by the Vegas oddsmakers (50% Team One Wins, 50% Team Two Wins or 70% Team One Wins, 30% Team two if spread is that way). 3. After a couple of weeks pass, call up the people who have won 4 or 5 games in a row, inevitable happenstance by sheer probability. Upsell them on a "weekend Vegas package" where they can gamble on higher stakes preferably $50K-$75K; because you're seem now as a infallible genius by the marks, you charge them a 35%-50% commission on their wins. 4. Doesn't matter if your client wins or lose. Take home the 50% commission on their churn and move onto the next one. Rinse and repeat. The show is highly entertaining and enlightening not because of the extreme doucheness of the head scammer and his salesmen, but the marks who delude themselves as they lose game after game and gets scammed - all followed by the camera-men of CNBC and the spin-motivational commentary of the scammers.
- glitch003 10y ago
  Fascinating that this scam was exposed on the Simpsons in 2005 and people still fall for it. http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Professor_Pigskin http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Professor_Pigskin
abelhabel 10y ago
Derren Brown made an entertaining episode on this scam: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1173484/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1173484/
- scoot 10y ago
  But how did the final bet work?!
  - nerfhammer 10y ago
    It didn't, the final participant lost in the final bet.

by gregmac 10y ago

noname123 10y ago

Yes, this scam is live and well in the sports betting world. There is even a CNBC reality TV show called "Money Talks" that documents and encourages this; as documented by the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xiiv-s-DRs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xiiv-s-DRs http://www.vipsportslasvegas.com/ http://www.vipsportslasvegas.com/ The recipe is: 1. Cold call people on a lead sheet for people indicate interest on placing bets on sports games. 2. Sell interested folks with a "two week package" for $250; seems pricey, but the name of the game is to filter out the minnows catch gullible whales. You want folks who are "vested" on this and prove they have the cash to be scammed. Double-side your bets or smarter yet, side your bets by the probability implied by the Vegas oddsmakers (50% Team One Wins, 50% Team Two Wins or 70% Team One Wins, 30% Team two if spread is that way). 3. After a couple of weeks pass, call up the people who have won 4 or 5 games in a row, inevitable happenstance by sheer probability. Upsell them on a "weekend Vegas package" where they can gamble on higher stakes preferably $50K-$75K; because you're seem now as a infallible genius by the marks, you charge them a 35%-50% commission on their wins. 4. Doesn't matter if your client wins or lose. Take home the 50% commission on their churn and move onto the next one. Rinse and repeat. The show is highly entertaining and enlightening not because of the extreme doucheness of the head scammer and his salesmen, but the marks who delude themselves as they lose game after game and gets scammed - all followed by the camera-men of CNBC and the spin-motivational commentary of the scammers.

glitch003 10y ago
Fascinating that this scam was exposed on the Simpsons in 2005 and people still fall for it. http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Professor_Pigskin http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Professor_Pigskin

abelhabel 10y ago

Derren Brown made an entertaining episode on this scam: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1173484/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1173484/

scoot 10y ago
But how did the final bet work?!
- nerfhammer 10y ago
  It didn't, the final participant lost in the final bet.