Football season brings betting scams, the BBB warns: fake platforms show you winnings, then demand more money or freeze your account.

Picture a county fair booth that takes your quarter, shows you the prize, then charges you a dollar to carry it home. That's roughly how a sports betting scam works, and the Better Business Bureau is warning about them as football season ramps up, KOMO News reports. Fans are being flooded with ads, apps and online offers tied to sports betting, and scammers are using the confusion over what's legal and what's not to steal money. The scams often start with professional-looking websites, apps or social media accounts. Some fake platforms accept deposits and even display supposed winnings. Others sell "guaranteed picks" or promise "risk-free systems." When customers try to withdraw, the BBB says, the platform may demand additional payments to release the funds or freeze the account altogether. A BBB study of reports from 2022 through mid-2025 identified more than 10,000 complaints and nearly 200 Scam Tracker reports involving online gambling and gaming. Betting rules vary from state to state, and sportsbooks, prediction markets, sweepstakes-style games, fantasy contests and offshore sites are all advertised in similar ways. In Washington, the only legal sportsbooks are at specific tribal casinos, the BBB says, yet people far from them still see national ads and can find sites willing to take their money. Fraudulent sites may claim to operate under another state's rules, call themselves a prediction market instead of a sportsbook, or say they're based overseas. My take: before you send a dime, find out who runs the platform, how withdrawals work and whether real customer support exists, and confirm it's legal where you live. Check BBB.org for complaints. Treat any "guaranteed" win as a lie and any fee to withdraw your own money as a stop sign. If you hit one, stop paying, save your records and report it. The house always has an edge. A fake house has all of it.