Gambling App Scams: The New Mobile Fraud Threatening Users
With the explosive growth of the mobile-app market, a new form of cybercrime has emerged: fraud perpetrated through fake gambling applications.
The Social-Engineering Playbook
Criminals typically begin by establishing contact with potential victims through messaging apps (55.4 per cent of cases) or social media (28.1 per cent). During initial contact, fraudsters often impersonate people of high social status or technical specialists to inspire trust. Some build closer relationships with victims, presenting themselves as potential romantic partners.
Curiously, in some cases the victims themselves actively seek out gambling applications after being manipulated by the fraudsters. Such situations lead to significantly higher losses – an average of forty-seven thousand dollars, compared with thirty thousand dollars in cases where criminals directly persuade victims to install the applications.
Distribution Channels
None of the malicious applications analyzed were available in official stores like Google Play or the App Store. Instead, fraudsters provide detailed instructions on how to install applications from unauthorized sources. For iOS, the Apple Developer Enterprise Program is exploited, which allows distribution of applications while bypassing the App Store.
Research has shown that criminals often use public app generators (such as DCloud and APICloud) to create fake programs. Moreover, the certificates from these platforms are also used to sign malicious software.
Psychological-Manipulation Techniques
After the application is installed, fraudsters employ two main strategies to induce deposits:
The Incentive Strategy (44.2 per cent of cases) – offering bonuses and other benefits for additional deposits.
The Pressure Strategy (11 per cent) – exerting psychological pressure by threatening to block the account or making accusations of irregularities.
Although the incentive strategy is more frequently used, both methods have similar effectiveness – approximately forty-eight per cent of victims make deposits under their influence.
The Fraud Infrastructure
The fraudsters’ applications use sophisticated technical infrastructure. A key element is the use of so-called distributors – intermediary servers that dynamically change the addresses of the actual game servers. This allows for rapid infrastructure changes in case of fraud detection. More than fifty-five per cent of back-end servers were registered less than two years ago, while distributor servers typically operate for five years.
Payment Methods
Fraudsters exploit a variety of payment channels: bank transfers, online payments (such as Alipay and WeChat Pay), cryptocurrencies (mainly Tether), and payments through intermediaries (so-called money mules).
The Endgame
The final stage of the fraud involves preventing victims from withdrawing funds. This occurs mainly through blocking the withdrawal function in the application (seventy-nine per cent of cases), preventing login to the application (16.8 per cent), or direct disappearance of funds from the account (1.5 per cent).
The Systemic Challenge
Gambling-app scams represent a complex problem combining advanced social-engineering techniques with modern technological solutions. Effective combat against this phenomenon requires a comprehensive approach encompassing both technical and educational measures. Particularly important is user awareness of the manipulation methods employed by fraudsters and knowledge of safe practices for using mobile applications.
Given the scale of the phenomenon and the magnitude of financial losses, coördinated action by operating-system developers, app-distribution-platform operators, and law enforcement is necessary. Only joint efforts by all interested parties can bring about effective reduction of this form of cybercrime.
What makes these scams particularly insidious is their exploitation of the trust architecture built into our devices. We’ve been trained to think of our phones as secure environments, vetted and protected by Apple and Google. The fraudsters understand this implicit trust and exploit it systematically. By moving distribution outside official channels – while providing instructions so detailed that even non-technical users can follow them – they create a shadow app ecosystem that mimics legitimacy while operating entirely beyond regulatory oversight.
The romance angle adds another layer of psychological sophistication. A victim who believes they’re in a relationship isn’t just risking money on a gamble; they’re investing in a connection, trying to impress someone they care about, or helping someone they’ve come to trust. The gambling app becomes a prop in a larger performance, and by the time the victim realizes what’s happening, they’ve often lost not just tens of thousands of dollars but also the emotional scaffolding they’d built around the relationship. It’s a double fraud – financial and emotional – executed through a piece of software that should never have existed in the first place.
Founder and Managing Partner of Skarbiec Law Firm, recognized by Dziennik Gazeta Prawna as one of the best tax advisory firms in Poland (2023, 2024). Legal advisor with 19 years of experience, serving Forbes-listed entrepreneurs and innovative start-ups. One of the most frequently quoted experts on commercial and tax law in the Polish media, regularly publishing in Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza, and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. Author of the publication “AI Decoding Satoshi Nakamoto. Artificial Intelligence on the Trail of Bitcoin’s Creator” and co-author of the award-winning book “Bezpieczeństwo współczesnej firmy” (Security of a Modern Company). LinkedIn profile: 18 500 followers, 4 million views per year. Awards: 4-time winner of the European Medal, Golden Statuette of the Polish Business Leader, title of “International Tax Planning Law Firm of the Year in Poland.” He specializes in strategic legal consulting, tax planning, and crisis management for business.
