Last month, KrebsOnSecurity tracked the sudden emergence of hundreds of polished online gaming and wagering websites that lure people with free credits and eventually abscond with any cryptocurrency funds deposited by players. We’ve since learned that these scam gambling sites have proliferated thanks to a new Russian affiliate program called “Gambler Panel” that bills itself as a “soulless project that is made for profit.”
A machine-translated version of Gambler Panel’s affiliate website.
The scam begins with deceptive ads posted on social media that claim the wagering sites are working in partnership with popular athletes or social media personalities. The ads invariably state that by using a supplied “promo code,” interested players can claim a $2,500 credit on the advertised gaming website.
The gaming sites ask visitors to create a free account to claim their $2,500 credit, which they can use to play any number of extremely polished video games that ask users to bet on each action. However, when users try to cash out any “winnings” the gaming site will reject the request and prompt the user to make a “verification deposit” of cryptocurrency — typically around $100 — before any money can be distributed.
Those who deposit cryptocurrency funds are soon pressed into more wagering and making additional deposits. And — shocker alert — all players eventually lose everything they’ve invested in the platform.
The number of scam gambling or “scambling” sites has skyrocketed in the past month, and now we know why: The sites all pull their gaming content and detailed strategies for fleecing players straight from the playbook created by Gambler Panel, a Russian-language affiliate program that promises affiliates up to 70 percent of the profits.
Gambler Panel’s website gambler-panel[.]com links to a helpful wiki that explains the scam from cradle to grave, offering affiliates advice on how best to entice visitors, keep them gambling, and extract maximum profits from each victim.
“We have a completely self-written from scratch FAKE CASINO engine that has no competitors,” Gambler Panel’s wiki enthuses. “Carefully thought-out casino design in every pixel, a lot of audits, surveys of real people and test traffic floods were conducted, which allowed us to create something that has no doubts about the legitimacy and trustworthiness even for an inveterate gambling addict with many years of experience.”
Gambler Panel explains that the one and only goal of affiliates is to drive traffic to these scambling sites by any and all means possible.
A machine-translated portion of Gambler Panel’s singular instruction for affiliates: Drive traffic to these scambling sites by any means available.
“Unlike white gambling affiliates, we accept absolutely any type of traffic, regardless of origin, the only limitation is the CIS countries,” the wiki continued, referring to a common prohibition against scamming people in Russia and former Soviet republics in the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The program’s website claims it has more than 20,000 affiliates, who earn a minimum of $10 for each verification deposit. Interested new affiliates must first get approval from the group’s Telegram channel, which currently has around 2,500 active users.
The Gambler Panel channel is replete with images of affiliate panels showing the daily revenue of top affiliates, scantily-clad young women promoting the Gambler logo, and fast cars that top affiliates claimed they bought with their earnings.
A machine-translated version of the wiki for the affiliate program Gambler Panel.
The apparent popularity of this scambling niche is a consequence of the program’s ease of use and detailed instructions for successfully reproducing virtually every facet of the scam. Indeed, much of the tutorial focuses on advice and ready-made templates to help even novice affiliates drive traffic via social media websites, particularly on Instagram and TikTok.
Gambler Panel also walks affiliates through a range of possible responses to questions from users who are trying to withdraw funds from the platform. This section, titled “Rules for working in Live chat,” urges scammers to respond quickly to user requests (1-7 minutes), and includes numerous strategies for keeping the conversation professional and the user on the platform as long as possible.
A machine-translated version of the Gambler Panel’s instructions on managing chat support conversations with users.
The connection between Gambler Panel and the explosion in the number of scambling websites was made by a 17-year-old developer who operates multiple Discord servers that have been flooded lately with misleading ads for these sites.
The researcher, who asked to be identified only by the nickname “Thereallo,” said Gambler Panel has built a scalable business product for other criminals.
“The wiki is kinda like a ‘how to scam 101’ for criminals written with the clarity you would expect from a legitimate company,” Thereallo said. “It’s clean, has step by step guides, and treats their scam platform like a real product. You could swap out the content, and it could be any documentation for startups.”
“They’ve minimized their own risk — spreading the links on Discord / Facebook / YT Shorts, etc. — and outsourced it to a hungry affiliate network, just like a franchise,” Thereallo wrote in response to questions.
“A centralized platform that can serve over 1,200 domains with a shared user base, IP tracking, and a custom API is not at all a trivial thing to build,” Thereallo said. “It’s a scalable system designed to be a resilient foundation for thousands of disposable scam sites.”
The security firm Silent Push has compiled a list of the latest domains associated with the Gambler Panel, available here (.csv).
If God didn’t want them to be fleeced He wouldn’t have created them sheep.
Man created modern sheep that require fleecing. Undomesticated sheep naturally shed their coat each year.
“It’s immoral to let a sucker keep his money.” – overheard at a religious conference. I won’t say which religion. Seems to be a part of many cultures.
Per article, ““We have a completely self-written from scratch FAKE CASINO engine that has no competitors,” Gambler Panel’s wiki enthuses. “Carefully thought-out casino design in every pixel, a lot of audits, surveys of real people and test traffic floods were conducted, which allowed us to create something that has no doubts about the legitimacy and trustworthiness even for an inveterate gambling addict with many years of experience.””
A bit on a tangent, but imagine if Google could take this much care in writing their products, instead of foisting half-baked apps onto users as guinea pigs!
Another opportunity for our Conman In Chief to fleece his cult members.
Krebs, you mean? Or his diabolical ‘My Dog Scene’ side-kick?
How on Earth are you conflating Trump with Krebs? Krebs admits when he’s made an error.
It’s not close.
win-spirit.co is where i wind up when i follow one of those links in the .csv file, looks pro like you would think it is a real gambling website. i did not even click “ok cookies”, spun the wheel a few times and had a “mega win” so then it asked me to sign up with an e-mail ecetera
“looks pro like you would think it is a real gambling website”
Ok but this is where the question is, what “looks pro” about it – it has javascript animations and decent looking logo quality or something? I just looked, it’s not even accessible from my country *(US). The “we’re sorry” page definitely does not look “pro” to my eye. But that’s subjective. I guess what I’m getting at is you can’t verify something is legit just by visual glance, but you can get a shady vibe that makes you think twice and look deeper before, you know, throwing your info and cash at it.
Doubtful as most of them have functioning brain matter. Hopefully grabbing the libs “unearned” cash
What makes the affiliates think they aren’t being scammed too?
There’s nothing really new about this scam — the same sorts of scams were performed offline as long ago as the 1980s/early 1990s (maybe earlier, but if so it was before my ‘time’ researching these things). Typically they were “touted” as ‘helping people find fake loans’ or ‘fake jobs’ (or fake dates or fake wives or fake cars or fake houses or anything fake, as anyone can attest to, is quite common), with the promise of ‘something forthcoming’ which never comes (except perhaps identity theft, in addition to any up-front money (generally in the low hundreds of American buckaroonies, but that was a lot more money, decades ago, compared to now)).
In other words, this is nothing new. Most of those people never got caught. Anyone’s guess if places like the above would.
BetUS appears legitimate. Putting money in is simple.
Getting money out is impossible. They aren’t registered in the US nor with any state, have no statutory agents, can’t be sued, and have scripts of how to string users along and keep jumping through hoops but never collect their money.
I had a wager on a basketball game. When my chosen team won the funds were put back into my account and all traces of the bet were removed. Upon inquiry they asked if I had screenshots. SCREENSHOTS of a bet. Like photoshop/gimp don’t exist.
When I cancelled my acct they wouldn’t refund my money. They don’t do anthing in writing/email. Their only response is “You need to call us” then they come up with absurd requirements (“send us a selfie with an ID next to you”) but never refund the money.
They’re not even Russian.
Don’t put your money anywhere online unless it’s YOUR bank with whom YOU already have a relationship.
“BetUS appears legitimate.” How so? Because sending them money is easy? You stranded the antecedent of a sort.
Somehow, this all reminds me of Angel Funding.
Seems to me just another 419 scam.. more elaborate, more ease, more allure
This article raises some important points about the risks of online gambling. It’s crazy how many scams are out there targeting vulnerable people. Thanks for shedding light on this issue!