I paid for 'fixed match' predictions and lost money — can I get it back?

Sellers of 'fixed matches' claim to have inside knowledge that a specific sporting result has been arranged in advance, and charge a large fee — often hundreds or thousands of dollars — for a single tip. In practice, genuinely fixed matches at a level accessible to random online sellers are extremely rare, heavily monitored by sports integrity units, and not something real fixers would sell to strangers online for a few hundred dollars. The 'tip' you receive is typically just a guess, sold to many buyers at once, so somebody was always going to have received a correct-looking pick.

This scam specifically preys on buyers' own willingness to break the rules: because you believe you're paying for something illegal, you're much less likely to report it to authorities or dispute the charge, which is exactly what the scammer is counting on. Many of these operations also demand payment via cryptocurrency or wire transfer specifically because those methods are hard to reverse.

If the tip loses, the seller usually offers a 'free' replacement tip to keep you paying rather than admit failure, or simply stops responding entirely. Because the underlying transaction was for something you believed was illegal or against platform rules, some victims wrongly assume they have no recourse at all — but you can still report the fraud and, if you paid by card, still attempt a chargeback for services not rendered.