{"id":270267,"date":"2023-04-24T14:04:57","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T19:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=270267"},"modified":"2023-04-25T11:41:34","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T16:41:34","slug":"bet365-bonus-fraudster-opened-1k-accounts-gets-five-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bet365-bonus-fraudster-opened-1k-accounts-gets-five-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Bet365 Bonus Fraudster Opened 1K Accounts, Gets Five Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

A British man who opened more than 1,000 Bet365<\/a> accounts so he could claim the bonuses<\/a> has been sent to prison for five years.<\/p>\n

\"Jon
Bonus abuser Jon Howard convinced more than 1,000 people to let him borrow their personal details so he could sign up for promos. (Image: Essex Police)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jon Howard, 40, of Essex, made a profit of around \u00a3236,000 (US$295,000) from the accounts he opened using other people\u2019s identities. Last Thursday, he was convicted of defrauding Bet365 and the Santander Bank at Basildon Crown Court, but was cleared of additional money laundering charges.<\/p>\n

Howard denied the fraud. But a “lengthy and complex” investigation led by Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate concluded he was the major player in a syndicate that began fraudulently claiming bonuses in 2008.<\/p>\n

The activity continued right up until Howard\u2019s home was searched by police in February 2019, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Designed to Deceive\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

“Hours were spent trawling through paperwork in different names, receipts for luxury items, bank books, and 177 sim cards that were seized from the address. Substantial sums of money were involved,\u201d said detective sergeant Mike Monkton in a statement.<\/p>\n

\n

Betting online in someone else\u2019s name is against the terms of use,”<\/strong> he added. \u201cThe whole enterprise was dishonest and designed to deceive the gambling company.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The court heard that people would willingly give the syndicate their personal information, allowing members to sign up and create accounts.<\/p>\n

On Friday, at the same court, Howard\u2019s codefendant, Daniel Gorman, 45, was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment for fraud, with 12 months suspended. He was also cleared of money laundering.<\/p>\n

Rise in Bonus Abuse<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Known in the online gaming industry as \u201cbonus abuse,\u201d the syndicate\u2019s modus operandi is nothing new. As long as online casinos have offered promotions like sign-up bonuses, loyalty awards, and free bets to attract customers, those have sought to exploit them. Detection is rare, and prosecution is almost unheard of.<\/p>\n

Bonus abuse is estimated to cost the online gambling industry up to 15% of its gross revenue, according to About-Fraud.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A study published last year by payments fraud specialist Ravelin found that 71% of online gambling operators reported an increase in the problem over the previous year.<\/p>\n

\u201cGambling websites often have high transaction volume, with players making a lot of payments regularly, which can make it difficult to detect fraudsters … or even catch individual fraudulent purchase,\u201d said Martin Sweeney, CEO at Ravelin, in a statement that accompanied the study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A British man who opened more than 1,000 Bet365 accounts so he could claim the bonuses has been sent to prison for five years. Jon Howard, 40, of Essex, made a profit of around \u00a3236,000 (US$295,000) from the accounts he opened using other people\u2019s identities. Last Thursday, he was convicted of defrauding Bet365 and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":270268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,19],"tags":[82599,85983],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBet365 Bonus Fraudster Opened 1K Accounts, Gets Five Years<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Brit Jon Howard gets five years in prison for opening 1,000 Bet365 accounts over 10 years and making \u00a3236,000 on the bonuses.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bet365-bonus-fraudster-opened-1k-accounts-gets-five-years\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bet365 Bonus Fraudster Opened 1K Accounts, Gets Five Years\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Brit Jon Howard gets five years in prison for opening 1,000 Bet365 accounts over 10 years and making \u00a3236,000 on the bonuses.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bet365-bonus-fraudster-opened-1k-accounts-gets-five-years\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-04-24T19:04:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-25T16:41:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Howard.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bet365-bonus-fraudster-opened-1k-accounts-gets-five-years\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bet365-bonus-fraudster-opened-1k-accounts-gets-five-years\/\",\"name\":\"Bet365 Bonus Fraudster Opened 1K Accounts, Gets Five Years\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bet365-bonus-fraudster-opened-1k-accounts-gets-five-years\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bet365-bonus-fraudster-opened-1k-accounts-gets-five-years\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Howard.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-24T19:04:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-25T16:41:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Brit Jon Howard gets five years in prison for opening 1,000 Bet365 accounts over 10 years and making \u00a3236,000 on the bonuses.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bet365-bonus-fraudster-opened-1k-accounts-gets-five-years\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bet365-bonus-fraudster-opened-1k-accounts-gets-five-years\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bet365-bonus-fraudster-opened-1k-accounts-gets-five-years\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Howard.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Howard.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":675,\"caption\":\"Bonus abuser Jon Howard convinced more than 1,000 people to let him borrow their personal details so he could sign up for promos. 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