How Can British Expats Avoid Online Casino Scams?

Posted by Harry Kane on Monday, October 23, 2023

While the age of the Internet has created immense and unique opportunities for both individuals and businesses alike, it has also introduced new challenges in the form of cybertheft and online scams. Such crime is prevalent across the globe, with an estimated 236.1 million ransomware attacks occurring worldwide during the first half of 2022 alone.

These challenges have become increasingly pronounced as technological advancement has continued at pace, while the risk of fraud and online scams remains particularly high in vast and lucrative markets such as iGaming. Certainly, the growth of iGaming across the globe has also created a prosperous black market, especially as regulatory frameworks have become increasingly stringent in Europe and the UK.

In this post, we’ll offer some generic advice on how expats can avoid online scams, while appraising that steps can be taken to identify and sidestep fraudulent casino platforms and bonuses. So, let’s get into it!

General Advice for Expats Who Want to Avoid Online Scams

At present, it’s estimated that 5.5 Brits live permanently as expats abroad, with this representing nearly one in 10 of the total UK population. Make no mistakes; these individuals are arguably more at risk of online scams than Brits who reside at home, due to potential language and cultural differences that may place them at risk when navigating certain website and industries.

Fortunately, there are some universal steps that expats can take to safeguard themselves online, with the first being to keep their eyes peeled for fake or rogue websites. To begin with, you should always translate a website’s landing page into English where possible, even if you have a grasp of your new local language. In the case of casinos, most platforms should either be licensed by the UKGC or offer English as an available language.

So, if you get an email that claims to be from a financial institution that you bank with or online casino platform, this will help ensure that you’re being directed to the official website and not a hastily constructed and fake alternative. This can prevent you from becoming the victim of scam and potentially save you considerable sums of money.

The same principle applies to tax bodies such as HMRC or multinational companies that you’ve previously dealt with, particularly those that are based overseas and you may not be familiar with. After all, scammers will often look to replicate previous correspondence from seemingly legitimate organisations or bodies, in order to create a sense of trust and credibility.

You should be similarly weary when receiving emails that are supposedly branded, especially if they ask for sensitive financial information or come complete with an attachment and prompt you to open this. These may be from a bank or even a promotional offer from a casino or remote sportsbook, and your email provider may not automatically flag all such messages as ‘junk’.

The reason for such caution is simple; as email attachments may contain spyware and malware viruses that enable others to hack your accounts and steal data without you even knowing. The good news is that you may be able to customise your email’s spam feature to highlight potentially fraudulent messages, while taking particular care when reviewing messages that are sent in a foreign language.

How to Safely Navigate Online Gambling Sites Specifically

We’ve seen marked hikes in online gambling activity across the globe in recent times, thanks to occurrences such as the coronavirus pandemic and the growth of markets in the UK and North America. The majority of expats throughout the world have been affected by such trends, and this is likely to continue for the foreseeable future at least.

This potentially increases the risk of being scammed, with the exponential growth of the world’s iGaming market having created an army of rogue operators that have looked to capitalise on this and fraudulently steal customer’s data. As licensed markets also become increasingly well regulated, we’re also seeing a growing number of players turn towards potentially rogue or fraudulent casino brands.

OK, we hear you ask, but how can you identify reputable online gambling sites from those that are rogue and susceptible to fraud? Well, to begin with, you need to ensure that the iGaming sites that you use display their licensing information prominently on the homepage (usually towards the bottom).

Every reputable online casino or sportsbook is required by law to share this information with their customers, including the unique license number, the name of the relevant regulatory body and their associated headquarters. What’s more, the license number should ideally be hyperlinked, leading to a trusted third-party website that can verify the casino’s credentials and right to trade.

For iGaming brands that operate in the UK marketplace, for example, the laws dictate that they need to be fully regulated by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC). This is a coveted accreditation that will often be boasted by casinos in regions such as Canada, New Zealand and the US too, as it’s trusted all over the world.

Of course, the relevant licensing body will vary from one jurisdiction to another, with the Malta Gaming Authority another prominent player within the European marketplace. Regardless, be sure to look for this information and seek to verify it online, before you make a deposit and wager your hard-earned cash.

From a more technical perspective, you should also prioritise licensed sites that boast 128-bit SSL encryption as a minimum requirement. This level of encryption will safeguard your personal information and the integrity of your financial transactions, as it creates an additional dimension of security that’s almost impossible to hack.

This type of encryption and the site’s core technology should also be independently verified and tested by specialists in the iGaming marketplace, and once again this should be advertised clearly on the brand’s website and independent casino reviews. If such assurances are missing, you may want to consider finding an alternative casino platform.

All reputable casino sites should also utilise random number generator (RNG) software, which guarantees transparency and ensures that individual game outcomes are entirely random and not subject to any kind of identifiable sequence. Ideally, online casinos should also have their games’ libraries tested to ensure fairness and transparencies, from trusted third parties such as eCOGRA.

Additionally, UK law in particular requires casinos to publish the detailed and accurate return-to-player (RTP) rates associated with individual games. The RTP rate refers to the average amount of cash that players can expect to recoup for every £1 spent, with most low-variance slots boasting a return of 96% or more.

If an online casino doesn’t publish its average RTP rate (or relevant data for individual games), it may be a rogue operator and one that utilises its library to complete a virtual scam. You can confirm by emailing the casino’s customer support team, but tread carefully as this remains a significant red flag to gamblers!