Fraudsters Are Using Polymarket to Extract Money From Stolen Debit Cards
"In the regulated space, this kind of thing does not happen." The post Fraudsters Are Using Polymarket to Extract Money From Stolen Debit Cards appeared first on Futurism .
Gambling enthusiasts are not the only victims of fraud in prediction markets. As platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi gain popularity, financial criminals are exploiting these markets to perpetrate unprecedented levels of fraud. A payment processing company alerted Polymarket in February to a surge in bets placed using stolen debit cards, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Fraudsters would input stolen financial information into the prediction market to place wagers. If their bets paid off, the perpetrators would withdraw the funds and transfer them to alternative payment methods they controlled. The WSJ reports that criminals attempted to siphon at least $10 million using this method, overwhelming the third-party payment processor with over 80 percent of its transactions flagged as fraudulent—far exceeding the usual 1 percent industry norm.
Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan reportedly instructed his compliance team to continue generating revenue and address the issue later, if ever. Financial policy experts deem the scale of this misconduct unparalleled. Joe Konizeski, a former Commodity Futures Trading Commission attorney, stated, "in the regulated space, this kind of thing does not happen."
"You have adults who handle customer funds and ensure they are sourced and handled appropriately," Konizeski added.
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