Did someone from Costa Rica just try to scam me?

06-26-11 12:21 AM

I received a call earlier this evening from a guy claiming to be part of some legal department in Costa Rica. It seems, he said, that my name and address had come up is some investigation dealing with the BetEd and other book fiascos. Now, I don't have a BetEd account, but I do have several Bookmaker accounts from the various books that they have bought over the years. And, this guy went on to say that because I had sent in so much money to these sportsbooks that were being prosecuted for money laundering, that the Costa Rican government wanted to assess some sort of penalty on my illegal sporstbook deposits. He said that they had records showing somewhere around $4,000 sent by me to these certain books ( unmentioned except for BetEd ) and if I were to " take care " of this $787 penalty, then it would not be necessary for them to send this information on to Florida, where some branch of the American government would then contact me Monday to, well, I'm not sure exactly what ....... offer a few more threats, I guess. After listening in shock to this unclear explanation for around ten minutes, I told him that I was not interested in sending anyone any money, go ahead and send your information. This call took me by surprise, and shock, of course. But after a little thought, it occurred to me that it is not illegal to send money to sporstbooks in Costa Rica as far as Costa Rica is concerned. So, now I am not so worried about this call I am supposed to get on Monday. This sounds now like a poorly thought out scam attempt, and not the first one that I have been a victim of because of my name on a sportsbook list. What do you think, Scam? Anyone else get something like this?

Justin7 · 06-26-11 12:31 AM

It's bullshit.

secretstash · 06-26-11 12:31 AM

lol bro dont fall for that scam..

wow is all i can say.. call the guy back and tell him to pound salt

-stash

iQon · 06-26-11 12:33 AM

Yeah, don't worry about the US government. They wouldn't give a shit even if this "penalty" were real.

Worry about how much of your personal info this dumbass has and act accordingly.

LegitBet · 06-26-11 12:36 AM

No need to worry about any of it. You did the right thing.

06-26-11 12:42 AM

Ya, at first I didn't know what to think. But, now it is beginning to sound pretty silly. The other scam attempt was a former book sales agent ,or something similar, that had called me and gotten deposits from me for a couple of books. This time, he called claiming to work for a third book that I happened to play at, and just happened to have lost my balance a couple of weeks before receiving this call. So when he offered a decent bonus for a deposit to this book, I accepted and sent a p2p deposit to South America. When I called to give him the number to pick up the deposit, no one answered the phone. So, I called the book up to get the deposit credited, and the book told me they didn't know anything about a deposit or the guy who called me. So I quickly ran down to the local mart to try and get the transaction halted. After about an hour of sweat, I got the $2500 deposit back, minus the hundred and something in fees. I guess I should be a little better at spotting these things by now!

juuso · 06-26-11 03:00 AM

Sounds like a scam to me. Some scammers probably gotten hold of customer info from BetED or some other sportsbook. Government agencies do not usually work like that. They usually send official letters or make cops visit/call you in for questioning.

06-26-11 08:11 AM

Well, that was his take, actually. He supposedly was calling in advance of the call from the American authorities. His hook was that I could make this whole thing go away before the information was sent to America from Costa Rica. He was actually better than I make him sound now - it took him about ten minutes of explanation before he ever got around to any talk about how I could make this go away, or any specifics about me personally. I went to the local poker room for a couple of hours after receiving the call. If I had posted immediately afterward, the tone of my original post would have been very different. After a little time to think about it, I became less and less worried. So, I started writing the original post not quite sure what was going on, but by the time I had finished posting, I was feeling alot better about the chances that it was, indeed, a rip-off attempt.

wtt0315 · 06-26-11 08:24 AM

wonder which sportsbook sold your phone number for some cash to these rip offs

06-26-11 08:30 AM

Over the last 8 years I have opened accounts with 50 or 60 different books. So I have my own type of " sportsbook list ". It is also possible that some fired clerk, or even one of the promotions agents that work for several different books may have decided he wasn't making enough of a percentage of his deposits. Actually, the first scam attempt I describe above was run by one of these agents that had probably lost his job.

wtt0315 · 06-26-11 08:35 AM

was it a 888 number or unknown?

06-26-11 08:37 AM

I had a similar phone call. Don't worry, it's just a scam. If you ever talk to them again, you tell them, I said to "fuk off!" Do you have a Bodog account?

Better yet, if they call back, tell em... "I'm going to make you eat those illegal financial documents. But I'll make sure you have enough room for my fist because I'm going to ram it into your stomach and break your got damn spine!"

katstale · 06-26-11 09:08 AM

Interesting to see how many others they try this with.

06-26-11 09:31 AM

Yes, I have a bodog account. No caller ID, so I don't know the number the call came from.

alling · 06-26-11 10:06 AM

scam -99999
legit +100000

donkdown · 06-26-11 10:26 AM

when the call monday **** with them!! tell them u will send money make them go out of there way to pick it up!! get the name they want u to send it to!!

relaaxx · 06-26-11 10:26 AM

thanks for the laugh

06-26-11 10:59 AM

That is a good idea. The least I can do is give them as much hassle as possible!

erickvivar · 06-26-11 11:11 AM

mmm, quite interesting and a bit clever. Need to keep eyes open, always deal with the book itself for sending any money any where.

wiffle · 06-26-11 01:37 PM

Originally Posted by alling

scam -99999
legit +100000

ARB!!!!!!!!l!!

babyjesus · 06-26-11 01:49 PM

Scammmmmmmm

robmpink · 06-26-11 02:15 PM

Originally Posted by BranchDavidian

Ya, at first I didn't know what to think. But, now it is beginning to sound pretty silly. The other scam attempt was a former book sales agent ,or something similar, that had called me and gotten deposits from me for a couple of books. This time, he called claiming to work for a third book that I happened to play at, and just happened to have lost my balance a couple of weeks before receiving this call. So when he offered a decent bonus for a deposit to this book, I accepted and sent a p2p deposit to South America. When I called to give him the number to pick up the deposit, no one answered the phone. So, I called the book up to get the deposit credited, and the book told me they didn't know anything about a deposit or the guy who called me. So I quickly ran down to the local mart to try and get the transaction halted. After about an hour of sweat, I got the $2500 deposit back, minus the hundred and something in fees. I guess I should be a little better at spotting these things by now!

Guy, hopefully this doesn't happen again, but if it does call **. They will freeze it. Minutes could be the factor.

I once had a books live chat get hacked into and they told me to send it to to a Muslim name and send it to Libya. I asked if they were serious and made a joke saying it seemed like a terrorist. Since I often send moneu offshore I was familiar with the places sent, but I carried on. I get my deposit back, but it barred me from sending ** because the name I sent it to was on a government watchlist.

06-26-11 02:34 PM

Tell him you'll send the money...get the name and location and then I'll take it from there.

06-26-11 03:26 PM

Scam. 120%. Thanks for posting it up.

06-26-11 04:13 PM

Originally Posted by robmpink

Guy, hopefully this doesn't happen again, but if it does call **. They will freeze it. Minutes could be the factor.

I once had a books live chat get hacked into and they told me to send it to to a Muslim name and send it to Libya. I asked if they were serious and made a joke saying it seemed like a terrorist. Since I often send moneu offshore I was familiar with the places sent, but I carried on. I get my deposit back, but it barred me from sending ** because the name I sent it to was on a government watchlist.

Just two weeks ago, I sent $1000 thru them to a name the book gave me, but had been banned by the p2p company. They have not said anything to me about being banned, and they also returned the fee. Only distinction here that I see is the reason the name had been banned - gov't watchlist v too many uses of p2p within too short a time span.

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Did someone from Costa Rica just try to scam me?

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Did someone from Costa Rica just try to scam me?