In the old days, fraudsters used to pull the proverbial ace out of their sleeve, but today in 2024, fraudsters have far more sophisticated practices and are using the latest technology to do it. One such modern-day scam has now been uncovered by French police.
Theincredible scam scheme
The French media has been flooded with reports of casino scammers in recent days. It all took place at the Casino Barrière Enghien-les-Bains in the suburbs of Paris, where on the night of Sunday 28 July to Monday 29 July, French police arrested two fraudsters. They were said to have won too often at the casino.
A 37-year-old Latvian and a 63-year-old Ukrainian were together defrauding poker players of tens of thousands of euros at the casino. They had devised a very interesting scheme. One of them played directly behind the table, with a mobile phone on the table, which had a special small camera attached to the side edge, which took pictures of the cards from the bottom during the deal.
This allowed the cheaters to see their opponents' cards being dealt. The player sitting at the table had a tiny earpiece in his ear that could not be seen with the naked eye and could only be pulled out with a magnet. His accomplice was sitting in the car outside the casino, watching the footage and giving him information and instructions through the earpiece.
The French police had already had a tip-off about the duo since June and were therefore prepared for their deception in advance. The police caught the fraudsters red-handed and presented the whole elaborate scam to the media. In just one evening, the crooks managed to swindle poker players out of tens of thousands of euros.
Part of the gang
The police told the media that the pair of cheats were not acting alone, but were part of a criminal gang of professional cheats. In France, this type of fraud was unknown until now. A number of fake IDs and a number of casino cards from all over Europe were found in their hotel room.
Only in the aforementioned French casino, the duo defrauded players of more than €200,000. How much money they were able to obtain from all European casinos and for how long they cheated in this way is currently unknown to us.
"We have managed to accurately document a unique cheating scheme of its kind. This case should enable casinos to take measures to prevent this type of fraud from occurring again by taking appropriate measures", said Commissioner Stéphane Piallat.
The two were arrested, charged with organised gang fraud and taken into custody. Investigators are hoping to track down and catch other gang members after this haul.
Source - valeursactuelles.com, tf1info.fr, francetvinfo.fr, lindependant.fr, aljazeera, pokerpro.cc, enghien-les-bains tourisme, le figaro/françois bouchon
