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"Sports Betting Arbitrage Investment Scheme" Goes Bust

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luctens
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"Sports Betting Arbitrage Investment Scheme" Goes Bust

Sat Dec 03, 2016 9:08 pm

hxxp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38184990

An arbitrage investment site called "Winning Express" has collapsed, owing £27m to 1,068 customers. This was a convoluted pyramid/ponzi type of crap scheme where customers put in money that would be invested by the company on arbing and guaranteed the customer 2% profit every month.

From what I've read and heard, the man behind the operation has apparently previously been involved in numerous dodgy schemes over the years, including dodgy mortgages, being jailed for fraud, having a previous collapsed similar type of pyramid scheme to this that caused investors to lose £521k, being made bankrupt, being banned from being a company director and apparently being involved with the Russian Mafia.

The man behind the company was living on the Costa Blanca, the company was initially registered in the Seychelles and then in the Cayman Islands, it was operating through Sheffield, Malta and the Costa Del Sol with bank accounts in Mauritius, The Cayman Islands and Hong Kong and were mentioned in the Panama Papers being linked to Dubai.

And to put the cherry on the top, this scheme was promoted and endorsed by Steve Claridge. ;)

Even with all of these extremely obvious reasons not to go anywhere near this scheme, there were still 1,068 idiotic and gullible mugs that were only too willing to put up their money to this scheme. Some people even said they were taken in and convinced to invest after listening to Steve Claridge in his YouTube videos on the company. ;D Give me a break. How gullible can you really get for goodness sake.

There are plenty of similar arbitrage investment scams around the world that have scammed people in the past, and one thing has been the same for each and every one that I've heard of, that if anybody did their full and proper extensive research before getting involved, they wouldn't have gone anywhere near any of these investments, but they didn't do their proper research, and they've paid the price by losing their money. It's the same with bookmakers, if you don't do your proper research before signing up to bookmakers, you're pretty much asking to get scammed.

Apparently there are some elderly people that put their life savings into it and are now in dire straits. One woman apparently had a property business, and now after investing in this, she has lost her property business, lost her home and is soon to be bankrupt.

There is a video of testimonials from 2014 with people saying how the great the scheme all was on hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voBzzOsGXNU and the BBC have confirmed that the people in the video are genuine, but I'm sure they feel somewhat the opposite now to what they felt then. The classic quote has to be from 3:02 in the video: "I'm satisfied that I can't see any reason why they'd walk off with my money, so why wouldn't I put more money in?". Talk about famous last words. ;D

There are many comments of extremely disgruntled "investors" on hxxp://behindmlm.com/mlm-reviews/winning-express-review-sporting-arbitrage-or-ponzi-scheme/

The man behind this scam apparently tried to kill himself twice over the last few months due to everything coming out about the company, before dying of a heart attack last month. The bloke is so hated and untrusted by his customers, they were even speculating on hxxp://behindmlm.com/mlm-reviews/winning-express-review-sporting-arbitrage-or-ponzi-scheme/ that he'd faked his own death to get himself out of trouble!

There was one guy talking on the radio about this scam, Toby Aldous, who describes himself as a "professional gambler", and he said that due to account closures, the absolute maximum anybody could make from arbing is £10k a year. ::) And he says he's correct on this, because "he knows about these things". ;D I tell you he knows bugger all about arbing if he thinks the ceiling of earnings for anybody doing arbing is £10k per year. What a complete idiot.

One look at this scheme and I could have seen it was dodgy and a complete no go for anybody, and a more detailed look into it would have told me it was even dodgier that it looked at first glance. But I don't care if the scheme was actually legit or not, you could make way more than the 2% per month they were offering if you just did the arbing yourself. A bloke even said that he was sceptical at first but that he opened a Betfair account and tried a little bit of arbing himself and saw that it worked, and then proceeded not to then just do the arbing himself, but instead for him and his family to chuck £100k down the drain into this arbing investment scheme.

The moral of the story: If you want to get involved in arbing, just bloody do it yourself!
Last edited by luctens on Sat Dec 03, 2016 9:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
dealer wins
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Re: "Sports Betting Arbitrage Investment Scheme" Goes Bust

Sun Dec 04, 2016 9:19 am

Obviously never touch these schemes with a bargepole, but if I did fancy investing in something different and risky, I would put no more than 5% of my net savings into such a scheme.  Thats just basic common sense FFS. 

The older I get, the more I realise that most people are really really stupid and clueless. 
Never trust a goose!!!
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Re: "Sports Betting Arbitrage Investment Scheme" Goes Bust

Sun Dec 04, 2016 10:07 am

Not a surprise for me. The gambling world is full of people who are willing to trust their money to anyone who promises anything. You need to have a solid mathematical background and be very cautious with anyone before taking any step.
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Re: "Sports Betting Arbitrage Investment Scheme" Goes Bust

Sun Dec 04, 2016 10:17 am

dealer wins wrote: The older I get, the more I realise that most people are really really stupid and clueless.
I like this quote but would amend it. They're also greedy and many of them are the the most powerful, successful people alive, which makes it all the more confusing :o
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Re: "Sports Betting Arbitrage Investment Scheme" Goes Bust

Sun Dec 04, 2016 10:18 am

Ahh yes greed, your absolutely right mate, its greed that is their main downfall every time.
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Re: "Sports Betting Arbitrage Investment Scheme" Goes Bust

Mon Dec 05, 2016 7:09 am

I have to give some credit to the ponzi scheme owners. It is not easy to get 27m from people
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Re: "Sports Betting Arbitrage Investment Scheme" Goes Bust

Mon Dec 05, 2016 9:03 am

maletaja wrote: I have to give some credit to the ponzi scheme owners. It is not easy to get 27m from people
Oh yes let's praise the scammers. What an utterly stupid thing for you to say.
Last edited by luctens on Mon Dec 05, 2016 9:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: "Sports Betting Arbitrage Investment Scheme" Goes Bust

Mon Dec 05, 2016 10:27 am

maletaja wrote: I have to give some credit to the ponzi scheme owners. It is not easy to get 27m from people
Dude, they scam ignorant people telling them crap like ''put your pension fund here, you will live a luxurious retirement'', ''put your kids college fund here, they will thank you later'' .
It is not that hard to scam ignorant people, some good communication skills and you can talk many uneducated people into giving you their money. You just have to be an immoral piece of shit to go ahead and do it
People get ruined from this crap, and, fine,  you can say its their fault for not researching but in a better world people should look out of each other.
But, in this world we live in, economics are ridiculously and needlessly complicated, and people are embarrassed to talk about their money let alone ask for help regarding their money
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Re: "Sports Betting Arbitrage Investment Scheme" Goes Bust

Mon Dec 05, 2016 10:30 am

It was irony, was just thinking you have to me good salesman to gather such a sum
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Re: "Sports Betting Arbitrage Investment Scheme" Goes Bust

Mon Dec 05, 2016 3:11 pm

maletaja wrote: It was irony, was just thinking you have to me good salesman to gather such a sum
No, you have to be a good scammer to gather such a sum, but the whole debacle apparently drove the bloke behind it to two attempted suicides before dying of a heart attack, so he got his comeuppance anyway in the end.
Last edited by luctens on Mon Dec 05, 2016 3:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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