Consistent with my New Year’s resolution to clean up the handicapping industry by exposing the frauds who exploit the betting public with outlandish promises that are built upon a house of cards, please find below my second installment on this topic. You know the scam-artists I am referring to: the boiler room operators, 900# dinosaurs and salesmen who attempt to sell a certain lifestyle by promising to “make you rich” in just 30, 60 or 90 days. Some have criminal records, others are selling picks for $1 and even a few are publishing pictures of sports cars and other items of purported material wealth in a desperate attempt to take advantage of the betting public.
I recently received the following email from an existing client who felt compelled to share with me his experience with one of the many scam-artists who pervade the handicapping industry. In an effort to preserve and protect the privacy of those involved, I have slightly altered the names referenced in the email:
I don’t know what your relationship or history with Adam D. and Fake Sports, but you exchanged tweets with their group around the time of the national championship game, so I took a look at their page. As you may know, they have about 47 different levels of membership there and for the low, low price of $250,000 per year, you can become a platinum club member and get Adam’s personal cell phone number along with their losing picks. It’s quite possible that if you payoff his mortgage or buy him a McLaren F1, you can get two years of picks, but you might need a live chat for that. BUT WAIT, as you attempt to exit their site, you get a pop-up ad for a special…30 days of picks for $1.99. So, I decided what the heck, this should be great fade material and 2 bucks is a low price to pay for sheer entertainment value.
Low and behold, the picks go 1-3 and over the next two days and all of a sudden the “vice-president” is one the phone with me. Note: I have no idea if he is actually the VP, they might make all of their analysts VPs for all I know. This guy calls me, asks me how I heard about them, what kind of money I bet and most importantly “How much money is in my offshore accounts currently?” I then get an offer to pay $3,000 on the spot, after they’ve lost two days in a row, and this guy will call me and email me every day for the next 90 days and promises I will triple or quadruple my bankroll in that time. After all, Cigar Aficionado wouldn’t write a story about them if they weren’t the absolute best at what they do. I started to explain to the guy that if you exercise money management as “Adam preaches”, that would be nearly a mathematical impossibility. He assured me it wasn’t, who was I to argue. He asked who I used currently. I advised that I had been following you professionally, but that I’d also followed you since the days before you went pro and that a proven track record was what mattered to me. I don’t need 4 picks per day, which is why your tweet last night of “low volume/high quality” resonated and was extremely refreshing to hear. He told me that if he was going to work with me I could only follow his picks but that he guaranteed me these returns. Bottom Line: I should follow them because Cigar Aficionado said so.
As it turns out, Adam’s two big plays over the weekend – NE which I was already on because of the syndicate play, and GB, which I hated and actually bet on NYG ML.
How can someone who does this professionally tell someone they can triple their bankroll in 90 days while exercising money management?
Anyways, I know you’ve been dealing with scamdicappers lately, so I thought I would pass this story along. Moral of the story is, if I want advice on Cigars, I’ll check out Cigar Aficionado. When I want to make money over the long term in sports investing, I’ll ask Oskeim.
Thanks for everything and keep up the great work.
Cheers,
Kyle S.
Unfortunately, I hear a lot of similar stories from new clients and it is extremely disheartening, which is one of the reasons why I am so passionate about cleaning up this industry. As you know, I do not employ any salespeople so you will speak with me if you call my office. I am also proud of the fact that I have received 27 distinguished awards from The Sports Monitor of Oklahoma since 2007. If you would like to discuss the issues raised in this blog article, please do not hesitate to contact me at your convenience.
I look forward to hearing from you –
Jeff Keim
Oskeim Sports Consulting, LLC