Betfair betting scam linked to leak at British Telecom
Wednesday 28th December 2005
As reported last week at onlinecasinonews.com, a betting scam involving the outcomes of several British Reality TV programs was detected by betting operator, Betfair. In the scam, a group of five online gamblers netted a total of £105,000 from Betfair by speculating on the winners of programmes such as Hell’s Kitchen, Strictly Come Dancing and X Factor, just minutes before they were announced live.
The latest developments in the betting scam affair have revealed that the scammers were not, as they originally claimed, merely skilled gamblers, in fact they had received inside information on the outcomes of these shows by SMS from a leak at Oswestry’s Whittington House branch of British Telecom (BT).
Stephen Burn, head of Media at Betfair.com said that the scam had continued unchecked for about a year, due to the fact that the bets were relatively small amounts, ranging from £2 to £5. ‘I think everyone knows it is morally wrong but this is not our money, it is other people’s money, and they are betting against each other. We have frozen the Betfair accounts and it is a police matter.’
