Scam Uses Likeness of Pro Poker Players

There are always scams that take place which cover a great number of areas, however, one of the more recent scams to emerge has affected professional players from the poker industry.

One of the largest social networking sites, Facebook, has been the tool used by the scammers. All of a sudden, there has been a large rise in the number of famous poker players that have been listed on Facebook. There have been numerous Phil Hellmuths, and others that have been noticed. The scammers are not simply posting fan pages, but are putting up pages in which they ask people to send money to them. The scammers are hoping that fans will send money to the players via money transfers through online poker rooms. The scammers have asked for loans, and while pretending to be famous poker players, have asked to be staked in poker tournaments.

Luckily, the scam artists are not meeting with too much success, since most online poker fans are aware that these players have earned a lot of money from their poker winnings, and would have no reason to ask their fans for funding. It is simply unlikely that players, the likes of Phil Hellmuth, and others, would be trying to raise funds via Facebook.

Poker fans should take this as a warning to be careful where they send their money. They should not send any funds to the fake poker players that have been set up on Facebook. It is easy for a scammer to take a photo from elsewhere online, use a bit of information that is already public knowledge, and put up a page, or multiple pages, in order to scam fans out of their hard earned money. There are even some pages that have been set up for players that have earned millions by playing poker. Remember that players such as Hellmuth have had nothing to do with these scams.

Official, reputable, poker rooms, where players play poker for real money will knock down a scam such as this should it manage to rear its ugly head in their poker rooms. For those who choose to play the free poker games offered as Facebook applications, they will have to be aware that not everyone out there is honest, and protect themselves.

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