YouTube Stars Discredited Over Dodgy Gambling Site
A Mystery Box Scam
Mystery Brand is the most recent example of a new wave of sites that offer so-called Mystery Boxes. These are lucky dip, loot-box-styled crates that offer random physical prizes instead of digital rewards. This site invites customers to purchase these for the chance to win, with possible purses including Lamborghinis, or items worth just a few dollars. It’s all up to Lady Luck, or so the site says, and prices for these Boxes range from US$4.99 to hundreds.
In YouTube videos eagerly consumed by their followers, Le and Paul are shown playing at the site, making bets worth hundreds of dollars each time. Their winnings are small to start off with, but, predictably, they soon manage to amass tech and designer clothing worth thousands of dollars. The 2 young men have almost 30 million subscribers in the teenage demographic between them.
Prizes Mysteriously Go Missing
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, a number of Reddit users say they have been gambling on Mystery Brand and received no prizes for their efforts, although there are some that say they have managed to get theirs. Strangely, the Terms & Conditions section of the site states that during the services it makes available, certain users may encounter circumstances in which they do not receive items they have won. The site certainly lives up to its name, too! It provides no transparency regarding the company that owns it and does not divulge where it is based, although it is claimed that it is run subject to Polish laws and jurisdiction.
If this is true, those laws are being grossly flouted. Sports betting is the one and only form of online gambling that Poland permits, and this is only possible if the operator holds a gambling license in the country.
The big prizes purported to be available, including Lamborghinis and Rolls-Royces; sound very dubious, but not nearly as suspicious as its main prize. If you pay US$12.99 to open the Women’s Christmas Box, you could apparently win The Most Expensive Los Angeles Realty US$250 000 000. The accompanying picture reveals the reward to be the most expensive mansion ever to go on sale in the United States of America!
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