How to protect yourself from online casino fraud
The popularity of online gambling provokes the market to grow: software developers release new items, more and more casinos appear on the network. The high profitability of this area also attracts many scammers who seek to cash in on ordinary users. How can a player avoid being cheated on the Internet?
We are talking about those resources that deliberately impersonate honest casinos, but dishonestly try to lure money out of users, without providing the promised services, appropriating deposits and not paying out winnings as a result.
Online casino fraud
In order not to fall for the trick of scammers, you will need to be careful and careful even before the start of the game. Logical analysis and sober assessment will help to avoid uncomfortable situations when money is stuck on some suspicious site and it is not known whether it will be possible to get it. There are several basic signs of outright deception, which means that it is dangerous to bet on such a resource:
- Lack of license.
- Script slots
- Inconvenient navigation, interface problems.
- The limitless number of ads, pop-ups.
- Loading too slow with interruptions.
But it happens that scammers successfully disguise themselves, trying to fool inexperienced users: they make an attractive design, fictitious documents confirming the license, or pass off their sites as well-known and reliable casinos. This is called scamming – theft, fake brands of popular resources. For this, sites very similar to the original are created. They are used as a platform for collecting personal data of players and embezzling funds from their accounts.
If you have the slightest suspicion, it is better not to register and not make deposits, but to clarify all the nuances and write to the owners of the original casinos. As for new and unfamiliar resources, there are several ways to find out if they can be trusted. These include the mandatory verification of the license, software and conditions according to which the casino interacts with the user.
How to determine the reliability of a casino
One of the basic indicators of online casino reliability is a certificate from eCOGRA (eCommerce Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance). It is an independent assessment and control body of the international level. It was created in order to form and implement high standards in the online casino market, as well as to protect the rights of players around the world. ECOGRA has a very high status and impeccable reputation; the organization issues quality certificates both to the casinos themselves and to game providers.
It is also important to pay attention to the number of connected payment systems and their reliability, the quality of technical support and whether it is available at any time of the day. It will not be superfluous to check the casino rating based on the reviews of real players, you can monitor their comments about how payments are actually made and whether the bonus wagering period is realistic. For this, there are specialized sites on the Internet with honest reviews of online casinos. For example autcasinos.com has made a detailed review of all online casinos in Austria.
What to do if you are faced with a scam
What actions should be taken if you stumbled upon a fraudulent site or even registered on it and cannot withdraw money in any way? Of course, you can try to establish contact with representatives of the institution, try to resolve everything peacefully. If we are talking about large losses, then it will not be superfluous to report to the relevant authorities, because fraud on the Internet falls under the articles on fraud in the criminal codes of different countries of the world.
It is also worth contacting international organizations and bodies regulating the activities of casinos: where the license is issued, if we are talking about a legal gambling resource, to independent regulatory organizations such as eCOGRA. You can also write to the provider that the online establishment works with if it comes to certified software and winnings with its help.