Australian cops rumble ‘boiler rooms’ linked to online sports betting sites

Australian authorities have taken down a number of ‘boiler room’ operations that cold-called customers to place sports bets on their behalf.

On Wednesday, Australian news outlet ABC reported that Queensland police had charged a 41-year-old man with “inducing people to deliver” by luring customers into sending money to be used to bet on sports and trade foreign currencies. A further 12 suspects are under investigation.

The Queensland cops say the accused ran three cold-call syndicates out of Gold Coast offices. Workers who manned the phones were provided with scripts intended to convince customers to send money for investment or wagering purposes. The callers also pushed the sale of software that would allow customers to identify optimal times to buy and sell stocks.

One of the companies involved in the scam reportedly took in $59m over a six-year period, of which the organizers kept $58m. Another company, which claimed to represent businesses including Costa Rica-licensed Bestbets247.net, took in $10m in 2015 alone.