“Recipe for money” – Casino spam in cooking groups on Facebook

When you cook, you need money for ingredients. If you don't cook, you need money for ready meals. Perhaps online casino operators from abroad had something similar in mind when they came up with the idea of ​​advertising their rather dubious platforms in, of all places, cooking groups.

Advertising in the cooking groups

We cannot say with certainty how exactly these advertisements are distributed. They are mostly posted by normal Facebook accounts that may have given their password to criminals through phishing and have no idea that they have placed the “Recipe for Money” postings in the groups.

So people managed to earn over 3,500 euros in just 3 hours? Sounds fantastic, let’s take a look right away!

A group full of old accounts

The links in the posts always lead to a Facebook group called “Recipe for Money”, in which seemingly enthusiastic users report on their winnings:

When we checked several Facebook accounts that enthusiastically reported winnings there, we noticed two things:
Either the accounts had been inactive for a long time and were probably taken over by criminals, or they were accounts from abroad.

A lazy recipe for money

The links in the group's posts always point to a specific site: an online casino. So let's take a look, maybe it really is a great way to make a lot of money without a lot of work?

Such a successful online casino has probably been on the Internet for a long time... you would think, but stupid:

The site has only existed since September 24th, the owner has had himself anonymized and the domain is hosted in Poland. Not very trustworthy. But what does it say in the imprint of the site from where the online casino is operated?

But we can't get there that quickly, because first we are redirected to another page with the actual casino, which has existed for a little over a year. Can we win something there now?

After an alleged win on a test machine (how lucky!) you should register immediately, but let's first take a look at the terms of use:

The online casino is based in Cyprus - and this is where things get problematic. As explained on anwalt.org , among others, online casino licenses from abroad, such as from Cyprus or Malta, are not recognized in Germany.

This means: There is no legal right to the payment of any winnings!

Such online casinos work with a few tricks, for example, at the beginning you will certainly make smaller profits, which tempt you to invest more, until finally the losses become larger and you invest more to make up for them - the vicious spiral has begun.

Let's summarize

• You are lured to an “intermediate page” of an online casino through Facebook accounts that have most likely been taken over by criminals and post in cooking groups
• This “intermediate page” is only a few weeks old, the URL contains a referrer link, i.e. the distributor or distributors of the link earn money with every user registration
• The actual casino site is based in Cyprus, these licenses are not recognized in Germany
• Even after January 1, 2023, when the Joint Gaming Authority of the States (GGL) begins operations, online casinos based in Cyprus will remain illegal in Germany

So if you win but don't get a payout, you can't claim it.
If you actually receive money paid out, this is income from illegal gambling - and therefore punishable.

As tempting as possible winnings may be, it's better to stay away from them, because you can only burn yourself!

Also interesting: The Czech Republic is the sender of supposed invoices for erotic services.
The scam is well known. – scam doesn’t stop – don’t pay bills from the Czech Republic!