Poker Card-Switching Cheats Face Felony Criminal Charges in Washington

Source: The Spokesman Review

Small bets at poker games at the Hooters casino in Spokane Valley have led to felony charges against two North Idaho men accused of the rarely prosecuted crime of cheating while gambling.

“Part of our mission is to keep gambling legal and honest so when the public goes in there to play, they know we have done everything in our power to make sure the game is fair on both sides,” said Gary Drumheller, spokesman for the Washington State Gambling Association in Spokane. “That the house is doing their part but also that the players aren’t in there doing things they shouldn’t.”

Travis Ray Smith, 37, of Dalton Gardens, and Todd Richard Jost, 33, of Hayden, were at the Owl Club Casino on Dec. 23 when prosecutors allege they worked together to distract dealers and covertly switch cards. They have pleaded not guilty to third-degree theft and first-degree cheating in Spokane County Superior Court. Trials are scheduled to begin next month but may be delayed.

Jost’s lawyer, Mark Vovos, described his client and Smith as “ordinary working stiffs” with no serious criminal records.

Carl Oreskovich, who is representing Smith, said his client maintains his innocence.

“This is based in large part on someone’s interpretation of a video,” Oreskovich said. Smith is “prepared to go to court and have the jury conclude that he did not engage in any conduct that would be inappropriate.”

In 2003, two gamblers at Northern Quest Casino were charged with cheating and theft for using counterfeit tickets, but Oreskovich and Vovos, who have been lawyers for decades, say they can’t recall other cheating cases in Spokane County.

Drumheller said his office usually is investigating several, but not all lead to charges.

“It’s really hit and miss sometimes,” Drumheller said. “It really depends on if we have witnesses or we have good surveillance footage.”

Drumheller said gambling investigators look to see if the card player misbehaved only once or if it was part of an ongoing pattern.

Casino employees reviewed surveillance video of Smith and Jost after a card dealer noticed Smith with six cards in his hand during a game of four-card poker, according to court documents. Smith then tried to slip an extra $15 on an already placed bet but was rebutted. He and Jost were kicked out the casino shortly after.

Other card dealers described the duo as being belligerent and defiant. One dealer said Jost tried to play a coupon that wasn’t eligible, so she told him so. That dealer said she didn’t realize Smith had used that moment to switch his cards until she reviewed the video. She believes Jost intentionally distracted her.

Smith won $90 on a $15 bet that investigators believe was a result of the switched cards. He later won $140 on a $35 bet and $120 on a $15 bet.

Smith told an investigator with the Washington State Gambling Association that he doesn’t remember much of the night because he was drunk, but that he didn’t intentionally cheat, according to court documents.

My take:: Well this is pretty small-time shit that may lead to some big-time problems for those accused. I guess Washington State's casinos are really looking to nail poker cheats and casino cheats, especially since Washington's casinos played a big part in the infamous Tran Baccarat scam where several dealers and floorpeople, including the mayor of Seattle's son, were charged and convicted of cheating their casinos in cahoots with the Tran Gang.

Ohio is Newest Casino--Cheating Groind in US

Hollywood Casino Toledo

The two new casinos that have recently opened up in Ohio, the Horseshoe Casino in Cleveland and the Hollywood Casino in Hollywood, have been getting hit by both professional casino and poker-cheat teams. This is nothing new for new casino areas, especially in the US where casino and poker personnel are quite weak in rookie casinos.

The reports I have been getting is that the bulk of the cheating is simple past-posting(late bets), bet-capping (adding to winning bets) and bet-pinching, which is swiping losing bets off the layout before the dealer notices them. I have heard some reports of fake chips being put into play, which of course is a more serious offense and could costs these young casinos lots of money.

In the meantime, I expect this rash of casino and poker cheating to continue steadily for at least the next year or two.

Here's a Nasty Little Casino Cheating Trick!

Casino security and suarveillance heads have been reporting a a new highly sophisticated casino-cheat device called a slot machine bill validator. This is a very high-tech cheating device that is reminiscent of the coin-attached-to-a-string device that slot cheats used some 30 years ago to spin the machine's reels while afterward retrieving the coin hooked onto the string.

Today's device is a paperlike facsimile of a $100 bill which has two prongs on separate ends that once inserted into the bill validation slot trigger the machine to read it as a legitimate $100 bill. And the beauty is that you don't have to repeat the process. Once the machine is activated to read any denomination bill as a $100 bill, the cheat is in business. Using $1 bills for $100 credits is $99 in profit before you even push the button!

I would take those payoff odds in a New York second!

Chinese Casino Cheat Facing 350 Years in Prison--For Casino Cheat Scam He May Have Learned on RichardMarcusBooks.com!!!

I have to warn everyone that the reason I post and detail elaborate casino and poker scams is for the entertainment that can be derived from reading about them...NOT for readers and prospective casino and poker cheats. But from time to time someone or some group of people actually go out and attempt to do some of these scams I write about. Now, apparently, one Chinese casino cheat and his group has gone out and done this in a very big...and COSTLY way.

After you read about this scam, go to my casino scam of the month page and read about the Casino Credit/Identity Theft cheat scam. You will not how eerily similar the two are.

Source: Online Poker Net News

A Chinese born man who has been convicted of defrauding three Las Vegas casinos out of $1,011,400 is now facing a jail sentence of up to 360 years, as well as $4.5 million in fines.

During a five month period between December 2006 and April 2007, De Rong Shang, 50, along with Yuli Eaton, 47, recruited people to open up bank accounts which were funded by Shang in order to apply for lines of credit at Las Vegas casinos. Once approved, the scam involved obtaining chips from the casino which they would then pretend to lose playing baccarat, whilst secretly transferring the chips to other co-conspirators, who would later cash them.

Subsequently, the recruits would leave the state or country having been paid around $300 for every $10,000 of credit they scammed and by the time the casinos tried to collect on their markers, they would find their accounts either drained or closed. As assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Duncan explains:

“Shang deceived the casinos into believing that the recruits had sufficient funds to pay back the casinos. In doing so, the defendant caused monetary losses to the casinos while enriching himself with proceeds from the fraudulent scheme.”

Falling prey to the fraud was the Bank of America and three Station Casinos, which includes Red Rock, Green Valley Ranch and Palace Station. De Rong Shang is now due to receive his sentence on July 16th, 2012.

In the meantime, Shang has become the subject of another FBI investigation in which other Las Vegas casinos were scammed out of millions at the baccarat tables. Apparently, Shang’s group may also have been responsible for defrauding Paris Las Vegas out of $550,000 while awaiting trial. In addition, as Andrew Duncan explains: “The defendant was also identified as part of a group attempting to conduct the same scam at Caesars Palace on Oct. 9 and Oct. 12.”

My take: If you read the scam on my page, you will not that the Roselli Brothers certainly made off with a lot more money and A LOT LESS prison time!!!

Interesting Shuffle Master Cheating Scenario

I have blogged once or twice about the possibilities and realities of casinos, particularly certain key casino employees like dealers and floor personnel, cheating players or their own casinos by manipulating the Shuffle Master automatic shuffle machines on casino blackjack and baccarat tables. It has actually happened a handful of times around the world, mostly by dealers, sometimes in cahoots with supervisors, temporarily disabling the machine to protect their own false shuffles.

Recently I received the following email from a very knowledgeable person presenting an intersting Shuffle Master casino cheating scenario. Below his email query is my response.

Email:

I read the article on your site about the potential for casinos or their employees to cheat with gaffed Shuffle Master automatic shuffle machines (ASM's). After a brief discussion, you concluded that there is no real risk to players of being cheated with gaffed Shuffle Master machines. You basically concluded that although such cheating is possible the risk for casinos or their employees is too high because too many people would have to be in on the scam.

I question your conclusion that the risk of such cheating is very low.

For instance, there is one likely scenario that you did not consider that I would like your opinion on: Shuffle Master does not insist that casinos using their automatic shuffle machines have only Shuffle Master employees service the machines. Shuffle Master is perfectly willing to train casino personnel to service the machines, themselves. So, suppose a senior manager at, say, a California Indian casino where State and federal oversight is weak) decides to cheat players at, say, double-deck blackjack shuffled with Shuffle Master's MD3 automatic shuffle machines. It would seem to me that all that would be necessary would be for the manager to obtain replacement computer chips with a gaffed shuffle routine, and during "routine" service on the MD3 machines have a trained casino technician (also in on the scheme) modify the MD3 motherboards with the new chips containing the gaffed shuffle routine. This would mean that only two people would have to be in on the scheme (plus the supplier of the gaffed chips who would probably not know where the chips were going).

With so few people aware of the scheme, and with weak State and fed oversight, it seems to me that such a scheme would be relatively easy to pull off. Now, why would a a senior manager of an Indian casino do this? Because (with weak State an fed oversight) the risk of getting caught is very low, and such cheating would provide impressive performance numbers that would increase his performance bonuses and juice his career. Also, at those Indian casinos, such as Thunder Valley in Lincoln, CA, that manage their own casinos, senior casino management often consists of tribal members who benefit directly from increased earnings.

So, what is your opinion of the above scenario, Richard? Do you think it's plausible, or do you still think that even in Indian casinos with weak State and fed oversight the risk of being cheated with gaffed automatic shuffle machines is nominal?

My Response: Although your cheat scenario is very well thought out and plausible, it is still very unlikely. Don't forget, the person you need most in your scenario is the dealer, so now your talking about two inside employees plus someone to supply the gaffed chips. Let's even say that this exact scenario happens ten times a year across the world. That still makes the odds of any player being cheated this way negligible. A better scenario for Shuffle Master cheating is simply having one employee or two disabling the machine for a short period of time. This form of cheating via Shuffle Master automatic shuffling machines has indeed happened, although not very often when you consider the number of blackjack, poker and baccarat tables across the world using them.

The Beauty of the Reverse Casino and Poker Scam

If you have been following my poker cheating and casino cheating blogs lately, you will have noticed that I have been writing about poker reverse-cheat scams as well as casino reverse-cheat scams. To refresh your memory of what a "reverse" scam is, it is simply a scam in which the primary victim thinks he is involved in a scam that is scamming somebody else and that he will share in the profits. He never has an idea that he himself is the victim. Like any ordinary scam, a reverse scam preys on the victim's greed, not to mention his willingness to scam somebody else, whether that be a gambler or a gambling casino or poker room.

Before you go on reading this article, please read these two reverse scams to get a flavor of how they work. Then I will give you the details on WHY they work.

Scam 1

Scam 2

Okay, now you have read about both these great reverse cheat scams, one at the casino baccarat table, the other at the poker table, and now you are wondering exactly why they work...I mean beyond the obvious driving factor of the victim's greed. Well, for those of you who don't know, even straight people who have never scammed a penny from anyone or anything in their life often fantasize about doing just that. Everyone on the planet, at one time or another, says to himself or herself, "Wouldn't it be just great if I could cheat that bastard out of..." or "Cheat that damned airline or bank!"

You betcha.

So now imagine how tempting it is to become a scammer when you are already embroiled in the poker and gambling world. The first pre-requisite in finding a reverse poker or casino scam victim is that he (or she) be intelligent and know a lot about poker and casinos. You may think this sounds contradictive, but it is not. People with average or below average intelligence are plainly not smart enough to fall for a reverse scam. Such a person would be asking too many stupid questions and thinking too many dumb things, and above all, worrying that he is somehow being set-up. But a sharp casino and poker-seasoned veteran will immediately understand the believability and credibility of the scam that he thinks he will be part of.

So now you have the first step. The next extremely important element of the reverse scam is that you get the victim's money in a way that coincides with what that victim thinks the scam is. In the baccarat reverse scam, the victim does not mind losing his money to the scammer because he believes that the loss is just part of an offset process to make the casino believe that legitimate high action is taking place on the part of the scammer to obtain casino credit.

In the reverse poker scam, the victim does not mind losing his money to the scammer because he believes he will be getting it all back, and then some, when they all cut up the profits they scammed from the other players at the table.

The last phase of the reverse casino and poker cheat scams is escaping with the victim's money in a fashion that does not panic the victim (or at least in the way that he thinks HE is being scammed. If the scammer, just after having taken all the victim's chips, suddenly gets up and leaves the table by himself, the victim might indeed panic and think he has just been taken for all his money. But if the scammer leaves being escorted by what the victim thinks are casino security agents (or worse), the victim's panic will only be directed to his own safety and escape, and not the thought that he had just been scammed.

So there you have it: the beauty of planning and pulling off the poker cheat reverse scam and the baccarat cheat reverse scam...and don't forget: I have been a victim of the reverse scam as well!

Reverse Poker Scam Galore!

ºThe victim and the scammer are sitting in the scammer's living room when a friend/partner of the scammer who the victim does not know comes into the house, excitedly shouting, "I got the marking solution and the contact lenses!" Of course the friend pretends not to know that the victim is there. The victim, a seasoned poker player, is immediately more than curious. He asks the scammer, "What is going on with marking solution and contact lenses? What are you guys up to?

He knows it's got something to do with a poker card-marking cheat operation. The scammer "hesitates" to tell the victim but then lets him in on it. He first allows the victim to insert the contact lenses in his own eyes while he (the scammer) marks the backs of the cards lying on the coffee table with the solution. As the victim sees the markings on the cards through the contact lenses, he is naturally astonished.

The scammer then explains the card-marking scam he is going to do with the friend, offering the victim the chance to participate. He tells the victim that they are going to scam a big no-limit hold'em game in Vegas's biggest-action poker room. He and the friend need the victim to join in the scam as a player to bump pots and make key bets to allow the scammer and the friend to raise pots as well. The victim is told that he does not participate in wearing the contact lenses and marking the cards. The scammer showed him the markings only to establish the credibility of the card-marking scam at the poker table.

The victim is rearing to go because he does not have to be involved in the risky part of marking the cards and will have no evidence (marking solution and contact lenses) on his person as the scam goes down. He thus thinks he is involved in the scam to cheat all the other players in the big no-limit hold'em game. They choose a $30-60 no-limit game.

Since the scammer and the friend cannot really see the cards, they must signal the values of their own hole cards so that they know what each other has in the hole. But how do they know what the victim has? Simple: they get the victim to tell them without making it complicated. The victim is told to signal only if he has a pair of tens or higher in the hole. He does this by a simple gesture on his cards. He is further told to bet this hand in first position or raise if someone has bet before him. If he turns a set he follows the same bet-or raise instructions. This assures the scammer and his friend of knowing when the victim has a strong hand, strong enough where he can go all-in and reveal his hand at showdown without breeding suspicion.

Now the victim is completely set-up by the scammer and his friend. Since the victim believes he is partners with the scammer and the friend to cheat the rest of the poker table, he does not worry about losing his chips to either of the two. Before the trio hits the poker table, the victim is told that if he loses his chips in the game to the player or his friend, he will be replenished with cash when either the victim or his friend meets him away from the poker table, in a meeting place completely outside the casino.

Before the big reverse scam move goes down, the victim has been raising and re-raising pots according to the instructions he had received from the scammer and his friend. He had been told that his function is to help bump-up pots when the scammer and his friend know they have the winning hand. This goes on for a varied amout of time until the ideal situation develops to take the victim down. That situation is when the victim has the high pair in the hole and flops a set while the scammer and friend enter the turn with straight or flush possibilities. When either the scammer or friend or both connect, the victim is signalled to move all-in. He is called by either the scammer or friend or both, and thus loses all his chips, usually an amount of $20,000 or more. The only thing that can stall the big scam is when the board pairs up and the victim makes a full house or four of a kind. When that happens, the victim moves all-in but is not called by either the scammer or the friend.

So now what? The scammer and the friend have all the victim's chips. Let's say that the scammer won the all-in hand against the victim. Now it is necessary for the scammer and friend to end the contact with the victim. A few moments after the big-scam hand, two men dressed in suits approach the poker table and one of them bends over the scammer and says in a low voice but loud enough for the victim to hear, "Would you please come with us, sir?" As the scammer gathers all his chips and leaves with the two men, the victim, naturally assuming that the two men in suits are detectives or FBI, panics and makes nervous eye-contact with the friend. The friend signals the victim to leave the table and go back to the scammer's apartment immediately. When the friend and the victim are sitting in the apartment, nervously speaking about what could have happened, the phone rings. The friend tells the victim to answer it. The victim does, and of couse it is the scammer on the line, who tells the victim that he is in FBI custody and is being charged with numerous felony counts pertaining to cheating in gambling casinos. He tells the victim that he and the friend had both better get the hell out of town quickly, that the FBI is going to track them down. The victim and the friend part ways in a hurry. The victim probably never comes back to Vegas, or at least not for years, and the scammer and his friend enjoy the victim's money, knowing that the victim probably will never know he had been scammed.

This is one of the greatest reverse poker scams ever done. To read the greatest reverse casino scam ever done, click here. 

BetOnline Poker Room Shut Down Amid Alleged Online Poker Cheating!

I have just gotten word that the sports book BetOnline has ceased operations of its online poker room. I do not know if this will be permanent but it is big news and probably is the harbinger for another major online poker cheat scam. This closure of an online poker room that accepts US players will have some effect on that market. The reasons I am getting are that some pro online poker players have been cheating via collusion scams and that other players are having problmes withdrawing their funds. I am sure more on this will come!

My take: Well, I won't say "I told you so" but I told you so!

Roulette Pastposting Team Leads Massive Casino Cheating Wave in New Zealand!

Casino Cheating Tsunami!

Source: Waikato Times

Three people – one of them a SkyCity employee – have been charged with attempting to cheat a casino of more than $7000.

Bo Du, 32, worked as a roulette croupier at Hamilton SkyCity Casino when, police say, she deliberately spun her roulette wheel early – or slowly – to allow her two associates Xiaodong Lu, 27, and Zhuo Zhao, 31, to place last-minute bets as the roulette ball came to a stop.

The offending is alleged to have taken place earlier this month.

It is alleged that on April 4, Lu walked away with $1632 and eight days later she and her partner Zhao pocketed a further $5600.

Despite being remanded without plea on one charge of cheating and two of theft, a police summary of facts stated Du had made a full admission and told them she met up with the couple afterwards to collect her share of the winnings.

Lu also faces two counts of theft and one of cheating, while Zhao is charged with one count of theft and one of cheating.

The trio's appearance in the Hamilton District Court yesterday had lawyers scratching their heads as to what a charge of "cheating" entailed.

Justice Ministry figures released to the Times show there have been just seven charged with the Gambling Act offence between 2005 and 2010.

The Times has reported one similar incident in May 2007 when Jing Luo Yan, a 45-year-old chef, tried to cheat at a game of Caribbean stud poker at the Hamilton SkyCity and was convicted and fined $500.

Though rare, the recent alleged offending pales in comparison to an example from November 1998 when Tonga-based Chinese millionaire businessman Zhu Hua Yu and SkyCIty Auckland dealer Lei Zhang were convicted of cheating when Zhang used secret signals to help the punter amass $120,000 playing baccarat.

Internal Affairs gambling compliance inspector Derek Hartley said he and the Hamilton unit were still investigating and did not rule out further arrests or charges in relation to the latest alleged offending.

However, he would not comment on how frequently similar investigations took place or whether SkyCity could face sanctions.

SkyCity Hamilton general manager Arthur Pitcher refused to comment.

He refused also to discuss SkyCity's anti-corruption efforts or staff supervision policies.

It is not known whether Du has lost her job at SkyCity or how long she worked there.

SkyCity Casino has 23 playing tables, 339 gaming machines and revenues of $26.5 million – up 13.7 per cent in the last financial year.

Du, Lu and Zhao were all remanded on bail without plea to reappear in the Hamilton District Court next month.

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Previous casino scams both here and abroad make the winnings collected by Hamilton's three alleged casino cheats look like chump change.

November 2011: Three Italians are charged with cheating at a Cannes casino after French police alleged they used special contact lenses to see invisible ink on the marked cards.

The alert was raised when the gang won NZ$76,300 in an evening of stud poker against the croupier in a night and another $10,000 in a few hours later that week.

January 2007: Two men and a woman cheated at least six London casinos out of nearly $734,000 in a hi-tech poker scam using hidden miniature cameras and earpieces. The sting involved two of the gang playing poker while their accomplice sat in a van nearby.

A tiny camera, hidden up the sleeve of one of the players filmed cards being dealt, with footage beamed live to the van via a transmitter. The poker players were then told via earpieces how to bet.

December 2004: Three gamblers who used a laser device to win over $2.73 million in two nights at a London hotel casino are let off prosecution after police say they did nothing illegal.

The laser scanner measured the speed of the roulette ball as it was released by the croupier, identified where it fell and measured the declining orbit of the wheel.

A computer calculated which section of numbers the ball would land on and dropped the odds for the gamblers from 37-1 to 6-1, with the info flashed to a mobile phone just before bets closed.

November 1998: Tonga-based Chinese millionaire businessman Zhu Hua Yu and SkyCIty Auckland dealer Lei Zhang are convicted of cheating after Zhang used secret signals to help Yu win baccarat bets totalling $120,000.

April 1998: Nevada's premier poker machine cheat, Dennis Nikrasch, who raked in millions of dollars over 22 years, cuts a deal with prosecutors for a lighter sentence in return for telling how he did it. Nikrasch and his cronies' scams brought them about US$40m (then NZ$70m) a year and left officials baffled over how they did it.

Nikrasch was convicted in 1986 of scamming US$10 million from Las Vegas casinos by rigging poker machines between 1976 and 1979. He was freed on parole in January 1991.

My take: Heck, I didn't even know there was major legal gaming casinos in New Zealand! Looks like some pretty big cheating scams are going down there, usually the case with Pacific Rim casinos when they're new. This casino cheat wave kind of parallels what has been going on in Singapore.

Greatest "Reverse" Casino Scam I Have Ever Heard...And Done!

First of all, if you don't know what a "reverse" scam is, it is simply a scam in which the primary victim thinks he is involved in a scam that is scamming somebody else and that he will share in the profits. He never has an idea that he himself is the victim.

I have been involved in many of these, and even once was the victim. You have probably seen some good reverse scams depicted in movies, but this one, which I helped devise with my partner in casino cheating Pat Mallery, may be the best.

It takes place on the casino's big baccarat table, not the mini-baccarat tables.

Basically the victim (expecting to receive 50% of the scam profits) is led to believe that we are going to scam the casino for tens or hundreds of thousands by obtaining credit from the casino by signing gambling markers at the table. The victim, who believes he knows the scammer's true ID, is shown false ID that that the scammer says he has used to obtain credit. The scammer tells the victim that he needs serious money to finance the scam at the table. The scammer tells the victim that before he (the scammer) signs the markers, he must first show large cash action to make the casino comfortable and believe that he is trully a high-roller worthy of obtaining credit, which is being worked on by the casino's credit department as the scam is actually taking place at the baccarat table.

The scammer may also take these following steps to enhance the scam:

1) Place $20,000 in the casino cage, against which he can sign markers. Most people do not know that you can sign markers at casino tables against your cash deposit in the cage the same way players sign markers against their credit lines. Anyone observing markers being signed at the table would not be able to tell whether the person signing them has a credit line or cash in the casino cage.

2) Actually sign markers against his cage-cash at the baccarat table to further enhance the credibility of the scam to the victim, which enables the victim to be reverse-scammed.

Since baccarat offers two wagers (banker and player) that cancel each other out (one wins while the other looses), the scammer tells the victim to bet approximately the same large amount as he on the opposite side, for example: the scammer bets $2,000 on player while the victim bets $1,850 or so on banker, not betting the exact amount to avoid casino suspicion that an offset is going on. The victim has financed this whole cash operation, usually for a minimum of $50,000 cash. During the play, the scammer is constantly speaking with the pit bosses to reaffirm that his credit is being approved, convincing the victim that he will soon be signing markers in $10.000 denominations. Then the scammer simply waits until the majority of the chips, usually $1,000 and $5,000 denominatons, shifts to him, which always happens because if the victim wins too many of the offset hands, the scammer and victim meet away from the table where the victim then hands chips back to the scammer.

At the opportune moment when the scammer has bt $30,000 and $50,000 in chips, which is all part of the victim's stake investment, two of the scammers cohorts dressed in suits looking like casino detectives come to the table, whisper "Would you please come with us" in the scammer's ear, all this in front of the victim, who is now scared shitless that he will be linked to the scam to bilk the casino out of money via obtaining credit under false pretenses. The scammer is then led away by the two plainclothes "detectives" (casino personnel notice nothing because it just looks like the two men are friends of the scammer). The victim is then left at the table by himself and soon gets scared and returns to the rented apartment where he is staying (leased by the scammers) and while there hears a knock on the door accompanied by a loud voice shouting "Open Up, FBI." Sometimes the victim does not open up, but when he does is then showed two fake badges by the same two cohorts who had taken the scammer from the baccarat table. He is then grilled with questions about the scammer, whom the FBI is now "aggressively looking for." The victim at this point is only worried about himself going to jail on a major crime, not even so much about his lost money, which he as of yet doesn't realized is lost.

Finally, he receives a call from the scammer, who tells him that he managed to escape from FBI custody and has split Vegas to avoid recapture, and doesn't know when he can resurface. Of course he tells the victim that his cash was confiscated by the FBI.

In most cases, the victim will not even know that he had been scammed but rather think he had the bad luck to get caught in an FBI sting.