DENVER — While people are focused on brackets and basketball, scammers are looking at ways to capitalize on March Madness.
The Better Business Bureau says this time of year, they see an influx of consumer complaints about scams surrounding sports betting and tickets to games for March Madness.
The BBB says scammers will often create fake websites and apps that are copycats of real sports betting or ticket websites that they push on social media.
“They have a really appealing offer, so sometimes we'll see ads that say money back guarantee, zero risk, or that they're adding a zero-risk policy for new users,” Meghan Conradt with the BBB told Denver7.
Conradt says once people want to collect their winnings, the apps have a technical error, require a deposit or some kind of processing fee. Sometimes the scammers will ask for personal information to release the winnings.
“They're really looking at not only getting money out of you, but also possibly your sensitive information, which they can use to sell to other scammers,” Conradt said.
Getting your money back can be difficult unless you paid by credit card.
If you think you have been scammed, report it to the FTC and the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.
You can also use the BBB’s scam tracker tool to report it.
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