Fraud Alert for iGaming Operators

By Dave Sawyer, Last updated Apr 29, 2024

Sadly over the past month it has come to our attention that an unsuspecting manager of a casino affiliate program was duped into making a payment for advertising here on Casinomeister, only to find out that no one here at Casinomeister conducts any business dealings over the medium of Skype.

It would seem that impersonators of individuals working for affiliate sites is still rife so it transpires, with not only Casinomeister being targeted, but also other well known sites operating within the iGaming space.

Whilst we have issued warnings over the past few years concerning this fraudulent activity, we decided to turn the tables somewhat and find out how these individuals operated!

Last week I personally encountered one such scammer firsthand on Skype. We became aware of an individual going by the name of “MaxD Casinomeister on Skype, presumably claiming to be Max Drayman, our senior forum moderator at Casinomeister.

This fraudster offered a 3-month “third place” advertising package on Casinomeister for the price of €5,800 plus a 40% revenue share. He “guaranteed” this would deliver 300 new depositing player signups.

Screenshot of our Skype Chat:

As you can see these imposters claim to work for trusted affiliate sites and attempt to solicit payments from operators by offering to sell prime advertising spots or provide favourable reviews. However, their offers are completely fraudulent and have no association with the legitimate affiliate sites they claim to represent.

In short, if as an affiliate manager you go ahead and proceed on a deal based on  Skype conversation, without any follow up on official email ie in our case using an email address from casinomeister.com, then you are very very likely to be  at the mercy of scammers.

Not only do these affiliate site impersonation frauds put operators at risk of losing significant funds to bad actors, they also damage the reputations of legitimate affiliate marketers like Casinomeister.

To avoid falling victim to this type of fraud, iGaming operators must avoid conducting any business deals over insecure communication channels like Skype, Telegram, WhatsApp, etc.

Always verify advertising package offers by contacting affiliate sites directly through a site’s official corporate email addresses and phone numbers.

Reputable affiliates will provide detailed insertion orders with clearly defined marketing deliverables and metrics through proper business channels. If the pricing, player guarantees, or other terms seem unrealistic or too good to be true, treat that as a major warning sign for potential fraud.

Our industry needs to stay vigilant against these deceptive impersonation tactics and work to identify the fraudsters promptly. Reporting suspected fraud attempts to the proper authorities and iGaming industry watchdogs can help protect the integrity of the affiliate marketing ecosystem.

Needless to say the impersonating Maxd.Casinomeister account over on Skype has subsequently been reported. Stay safe out there on the Wild Wide Web!

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