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| by
Trace Fields |
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The sports
service industry is full of con-artists who use lies, deceit, and outrageous tactics
to steal money from unsuspecting people from all over the "scamdicappers." Scamdicappers have a number of
different tricks they use to advertise their services so people
will call their 900 number. Scamdicappers
use advertising mediums such as
television, newspapers, schedule advertisements, scorephones, and magazines. Some scamdicappers
will call you directly at
home to beg for your credit card number. Scamdicappers get your phone
number when you call them and they ask to call you right back
because they are "busy." A very common technique for scamdicappers to get phone numbers. I will expose some of
the different scamdicapping services around the nation concentrating on
the most enticing and biggest
liars. Most scamidicappers
advertise in preseason football magazines or football schedules. Think
about some of the advertisements that you see in schedules: 100 STAR LOCK OF THE YEAR GOES TONIGHT!!!!
(900) xxx-xxxx 500 STAR BIG EAST GAME OF THE YEAR!!!! (900)
xxx-xxxx How are these guys picking their locks months
in advance with no knowledge of current form, line, injuries?
Of course there is a sucker born every minute. SCORE
Scamdicappers have grown more
sophisticated and in reality they are very slick marketers of lies. One of the biggest
marketers of lies is Score. Score secretly put out a book to garner
more customers called How To Make $200,000 A Year Betting Football by
a pen name "Harry Pappas." In the book Harry Pappas describes his rise
to supposed betting stardom by utilizing Score's Grand Slam Parlay. Score's
Grand Slam Parlay involves picking a 4 team parlay to win at 10-1 odds.
Pappas talks about playing a four team parlay for $15,000 and winning
$150,000. Well I do not know where Harry Pappas put down a 4 team parlay
for $15,000 but it was not on this planet. Harry takes you through
one season of wagering while telling nice stories about Score along the
way. The whole book is blatantly designed to get people to believe
that Score is the nation's premiere handicapping service. There is
one problem with Score. Score is not monitored by legitimate sports monitoring
services of which there are two reliable ones: The Sports Monitor - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
(405) 721-5019 Sportswatch - Las Vegas, Nevada
(702) 791-3938 The major key to identifying scamdicappers is checking to see if they are monitored by The Sports Monitor or Sportswatch. If they are not monitored by The Sports Monitor or Sportswatch they are probably scamdicappers. Scamdicappers will try to confuse the public by inventing their own "monitoring services"
which falsely document handicapping records that never existed.
In one of their "Moneymaker Update Reports", Score claimed they
were ranked #1 in combined college and NFL selections by the widely respected
national monitor, "Handicapper's Report Card" of
Cleveland Ohio, with a Best Bet record of 91%. I guess it does not matter to Score
the "Handicapper's Report Card" does not even exist. Score operates by having different clubs.
Score has the introductory Late Telephone Service they offer for $600.
The Lock Club costs $1500 and is the one that "Harry Pappas"
raves about in Score's bogus book. Of course the clubs do not end with the
Lock Club as one can plunk down $2500 to be a member of Bob Dunbar's Round
Table where Score says you can take part in discussions with Bob Dunbar
himself during the week. Yeah, like Bob Dunbar somehow
finds time to handicap after talking to hundreds of people every week?
The cheapest way into a Score "club" is $600. Score will have
you wire them $600 via Western Union and you will be in contact with one of the
Score representatives that you read about in their tabloid type newsletter.
This will give you a feel that you are on your way to being a
high roller. By having you call directly Score will offer you special
plays for a price or the promise that you will join one of the higher
priced "clubs." It has always been my philosophy to question why
I was not getting the best plays in the first place? Score puts out a tout sheet for marketing
their rip-off services that you can get on your local newsstand. Score's
tout sheet advertises all of their wins from last week but never talks
about their losers. Score also describes games where they contacted
coaches to change game plans. It is out of the realm of possibility that
Score is contacting the Virginia Tech coaches and asking them to
change their defensive scheme for a particular team. Score always brings
up those easy winners from last week in their newsletter saying how
easy it was to identify those teams and uses that to influence people.
It is a very good lure for new customers as most people did not play on
those games but were wishing they had as the scores on the ticker rolled
around for that particular Saturday. In 1995 I had $600 to burn to see if Score's
claims were legitimate. I was curious after reading Harry Pappas'
book to see if Score was a legitimate service but I postponed doing
so for two years. I called Score and spoke to one of their representatives
by the name of Harry Bondi. I told him I wanted
to purchase Score's Grand Slam parlay through their smallest club for $600. Of
course Score quickly took my money as I used my credit card to wire $600
via Western Union for the Late Telephone Service. I stayed in contact
with Harry Bondi from week to week until the week of October 7, 1995
where Harry Bondi told me Score's Grand Slam Parlay would arrive on
that particular Saturday. Harry told me to call him Saturday for the
Grand Slam Parlay which involved the following four teams. Virginia Tech -13 Navy Texas -18 Rice Notre Dame -4 Washington Southern Miss -8 Louisville It took me almost an hour to get those plays
that Saturday and it would be critical as the line on the Virginia
Tech game moved to -14. The first thing I noticed when I got the plays
was the similarity of the plays Score released for the Grand Slam
Parlay with Phil Steele's publication Power Sweep that was published
earlier that week. Power Sweep's plays were as follows: 4 Star Virginia Tech -13 Navy 3 Star Notre Dame -4 Washington 3 Star Iowa -1 Michigan State 2 Star Southern Miss -8 Louisville 2 Star Texas -18 Rice 2 Star Arizona State +2 Stanford At that point I brushed this occurrence
of Score having 4 of the 6 teams that Power Sweep listed for the week as
mere coincidence. The similar plays are highlighted above. The day started
the results were as follows... Virginia Tech -13/14 Navy WIN/PUSH Virginia
Tech 14 Navy 0 Texas -18 Rice WIN Texas 37 Rice 13 Notre Dame -4 Washington WIN Notre Dame
29 Washington 21 Southern Miss -8 Louisville LOSE Southern
Miss 25 Louisville 21 So Score went 3-1 or 2-1-1 depending on
what line you got on the Virginia Tech game. Most probably did not
get Virginia Tech -13 as the line moved. A stroke of luck that helped identify Score
as a pack of liars occurred two weeks before the Grand Slam Parlay at
my ten year high school reunion. At my ten year high school reunion
I was reunited with my old friend Patrick who was a stock broker in
Lake Tahoe. Patrick gathered that I had become a serious college football
handicapper since we graduated from high school. Patrick was
an amateur but did fire smaller wagers every weekend on college football.
I asked Patrick if he knew of anyone that could help me get larger wagers
down, specifically for the Score Grand Slam Parlay. Patrick worked
as a stock broker in San Francisco before moving to Lake Tahoe and
knew of someone that could hook me up with a bookmaker who took wagers
of large size. I figured Patrick would know someone who bet sports
for large amounts in the brokerage business. Patrick set me up with
Greg the following Monday after our high school reunion. Greg was
a stock broker with Patrick in San Francisco before Patrick moved to Lake
Tahoe. In our conversation on Monday the week of October 7, Greg found
out that I was interested in playing the Score Grand Slam Parlay for
the upcoming weekend. It just so happened that Greg had signed up as a
member of the Lock Club and was anxiously awaiting the Score Grand Slam
Parlay like myself. After the Grand Slam Parlay Greg offered
to let me have Score's Lock Club plays for $300. I was interested to
see if Score was really legitimate at that point. Greg told me Score
had started off the year really slow and was struggling. I received
the phone number for Score's Lock Club recording and pass codes from
Greg. Greg also told me, to my surprise, that Score did not have one Grand
Slam Parlay but four. The weeks went by after the first Grand Slam
Parlay was released and the only thing Score could pick was their nose.
It was also during this time that Score was printing lies about
Phil Steele and Northcoast Sports in their handicapping newsletter,
Football Forecasting Weekly. Every week Score bashes scamdicappers and legitimate handicappers that offer services that rival Score and take
money away from them. Score talked about how Phil Steele had numerous
different clubs and put different sides to the same game with the
different clubs. As a 1995 member of the Northcoast
Executive Club I knew Score was lying. Phil put out the same sides to every service
he offered. By this time I was not naive anymore about
Score's lies and techniques to rip off the public. You see when I bought
the Grand Slam Parlay from Score's Harry Bondi
I received Score's Football Forecasting Weekly every week up to the first Grand Slam Parlay on
October 7, 1995. After that I had not paid for any of Score's service
directly and Score would send me these "Moneymaker Update Reports"
talking about their big winners last week when I was actually getting the Lock
Club plays and receiving losers. The Moneymaker Update Reports were
used to entice potential customers into joining Score by talking
about last week's wins. The big wins listed in the Moneymaker Update Reports
were rarely part of the Lock Club plays. So Score's advertising
techniques became apparent very quickly as they talked about easy winners
from last week on games the Lock Club DID NOT RELEASE! It really pissed
me off when I would pick up a Score Football Forecasting Weekly at the
newsstand which had nothing to say about last week's winners because
there was none. Strangely, I would get one of those Moneymaker Update
Reports for the same week and they would talk about their big winning
week last week?!? Nice marketing techniques. Score used their Moneymaker Update Report
to inform me of the next Grand Slam Parlay going on November 4, 1995. At
the top were scores of three games they did not have on the lock club
last week. As usual, Score was using lies to advertise. Score started their
Moneymaker Update Report by stating: Because our 1995 College "Grand
Slam" Parlay "only" went 18-8, Bob Dunbar has authorized "Part
II - The Sequel" and Willie O'Brien, director of the famed Score "Lock
Team" has promised, "If we don't go 26-0 this Saturday, I'll resign."
The 26-0 statement refers to the way Score wants you to bet the Grand
Slam Parlay. Score wants you to play parlays and teasers as part of the
Grand Slam Parlay for 26 ways of winning if the four games of the parlay
win. There was another interesting occurrence
that happened during Saturday morning when Score was releasing their second
Grand Slam Parlay on November 4, 1995. It just so happened that
Doc's Enterprises was releasing the most famous single play in
sports handicapping, Doc's Big 10 Play of the Year. Doc's Big 10 Play of
the Year had won something like 22 of the last 24 Big 10 Plays of the
Year. Well, Score was set to release their Grand Slam Parlay at 11:30
AM EST on Saturday morning of November 4, 1995. Doc was scheduled to release
his Big 10 Play of the Year at 11:00 AM EST. I called Doc's at
11:00 AM EST and Doc delayed the release of the play by 30 minutes. I
called Score at 11:30 AM EST and Score was also delaying their release
but gave a Lock play on Baylor +6 over Miami to keep the subscribers happy.
I thought Score had this Grand Slam Parlay planned out weeks ago.
Why didn't they release it on time? Well I could not get through to Doc's
Enterprises at 11:31 AM EST. In fact I did not get through until
11:45 AM CST when Doc released their Big 10 Play of the Year on Penn State
-6.5 over Northwestern. It just so happened that 15 minutes later Score
finally released their Grand Slam Parlay at 12:00 AM EST on November
4, 1995 involving the four teams below. Michigan -13 Michigan State USC -14.5 Stanford Penn State -6.5 Northwestern UCLA -6.5 Arizona State Remember when Score released their first
Grand Slam Parlay and all 4 plays were on Phil Steele's Power Sweep
newsletter? Isn't it kind of curious that Score delayed releasing their
Grand Slam Parlay when Doc's Enterprises delayed releasing their Big
10 Game of the Year? May be it was just a coincidence that Penn State was
released as part of the Grand Slam Parlay after Doc released Penn State
as their Big 10 Game of the Year? I do not think so. Score delayed their
release of their Grand Slam Parlay so they could use Doc's Enterprises
Big 10 Game of the Year for the Grand Slam Parlay. It would not
matter. Score's results for their second Grand Slam
Parlay on November 4, 1995: USC -14.5 Stanford LOSE USC 31 Stanford
30 Michigan -13 Michigan State LOSE Michigan
State 28 Michigan 25 Penn State -6.5 Northwestern LOSE Northwestern
21 Penn State 10 UCLA -6.5 Arizona State LOSE Arizona State
37 UCLA 33 No winners and four losers! USC, Penn State,
and Michigan were NEVER close to covering! USC had to rally late
just to win the ballgame. By the way Score's Lock, Baylor +6, lost to
Miami 35-14. Baylor was never in the game which seems to be one of the
many re-occurring themes at Score. Score could not talk about their
NFL performance as they lost on Sunday also so they just rambled about last
week's games and bashed other handicappers. Remember the Score Moneymaker
Update Report that only non-subscribers get? Score talked about
how their subscribers won last week with three games blaring across
the headlines from November 4, 1995! I must have missed those plays. Score's
main newsletter, Football Forecasting Weekly, did not even
mention the results of the Grand Slam Parlay. Who would have thought?
I guess Willie O'Brien must have resigned after not hitting the Grand
Slam Parlay on November 4, 1995. At this point Score became desperate and
put out four plays on the Lock Club they rated at 300% on November 11,
1995. The very next week! Score did not call these plays a Grand Slam
Parlay. I repeat Score at any point before releasing these four plays
did not call them a Grand Slam Parlay. Predictably all four plays won and Score
came out the next week and said they hit a Grand Slam Parlay. But those
jackasses never told the Lock Club it was a Grand Slam Parlay. It's funny
that Score lost week after week and finally hits something and they
call it their Grand Slam Parlay. In 1996 I guarantee Score will use
those four games to advertise how they hit their Grand Slam
Parlay. It is amazing how Score talks in their newsletters
about how Harry Bondi scouted some game for weeks and identified
something when he was on the phone constantly trying to sell Score's
service to unsuspecting people. Score is not about handicapping but about
marketing lies. Score is football's answer to the tabloid newsletter.
I will take some excerpts out Score's 1995 newsletters: Vol 24. Number 7 -
"The fastest way to multiply your bankroll is to hit a 4 team parlay that pays off at 10 to 1
in Las Vegas. SCORE has made thousands of people rich over the years
with our spectacular record on our 4 team "Grand Slam Parlays."
Here is how a SCORE "Grand Slam Parlay" works. If you have some debts
you would like to clear up, say $6,000, you simply bet $600 on the "Grand
Slam." Because of the 10 to 1 payoff, you will pick up $6,000 and, "presto,"
you can pay off all of your debts. If you have serious financial
problems and need $300,000, simply fly to Las Vegas and bet $30,000
on SCORE'S "Grand Slam." When the dust settles you have made a fast $300,000." Did it ever occur to Score that you can
not get $30,000 down on a four team parlay anywhere in the world? In fact,
Harry Pappas told me the largest parlay I could get in Las Vegas
was $5,000 at the Mirage. Vol 24, Number 7 -
"All the squares got suckered into betting on Jackie Sherrill's Mississippi State Bulldogs (+12)
against Tennessee Saturday figuring that the Vols
would be "down" after blowing a big lead to Florida before getting wasted 62-37 and
because of all the turmoil on the team with so many players being arrested
and charged with various crimes. However, Bob Dunbar dispatched Mick
Richards to Knoxville early in the week and his nightly faxes to Dunbar
and the SCORE "Lock Team" indicated that the Vols
were "up" for the game. "Peyton Manning is a real competitor like his father (Archie)
and he's already shrugged off the Florida fiasco. Coach Philip Fulmer
and the rest of the team are used to seeing players being handcuffed
and led away from the practice field or the dormitory." The net result
was the Vols (-12) were labeled a "sure thing" by Richards and
they responded with a 52-14 thrashing of Sherrill's team." This "sure thing" identified by
Mick Richards NEVER was released as a Score selection but they brag like it was
released to everyone but you. I guess you did not belong to that Score
club? What could Mick Richards find out about Tennessee's mental frame
of mind from a Knoxville motel room? Of course "Mick Richards"
never left Boston. Vol 24, Number 7 -
"A measure of the pathetic coaching ability of Washington head coach Jim Lambright is that his Huskies (-26) barely hung on to defeat a gutty
Army team 21-13. The smallish Cadets controlled the ball for almost 37 minutes
against the out of shape Huskies. The Cadets ran out of time as they
faced a 4th & 1 on the Huskies one yard line when the final whistle
blew. "Lambright is so bad, the once proud Huskies will be lucky
to win a game the rest of the season," said Cal coach Keith Gilberson, a former Washington assistant under legendary former coach Don James.
"I just wish we played them this year. We could use an easy win.""
No coach in college football would openly
bash a member of another team's staff. Vol 24 Number 12 -
"Only a touchdown with under a minute to play on Saturday allowed Vandy
(+12) to cover in a 21-10 loss to Mississippi. Vandy has scored just
40 points in it's last six games. In that game, Mississippi coach Tommy Tuberville finally took SCORE scout Lonnie Quint's advice and replaced
starting quarterback Josh Nelson with backup Paul Head. Head, a 6-0 195 pound sophomore
who is a Dean's List student with a 3.99 GPA threw three TD passes in
the victory and will probably start this week versus Memphis." Score tries to dazzle you with stats about
particular players to prove they scout players from high school. Score
never leaves Boston to scout any player or team including spring practice,
which they often talk about attending. They also claim that Score's
Lonnie Quint gave advice to Mississippi's head coach about replacing
the starting quarterback. Yeah, right. The humorous part of Score is the supposed
letters that Score gets and publishes in their Fan Forum. Like this
one from the Moneymaker Report trying to sell the 1995 Lock of the Year.
Dear SCORE: I thought my brother-in-law was a drug dealer!
He and I both make about $30,000 a year but I was always broke and
my wife always complained that she and her kids had nothing. Her sister
and her children had nice clothes, new cars, vacations, the works.
Finally, I told Ken, my brother-in-law that I was broke and going
under. Could he help me? I was willing to be a drug "mule"
to pick up some extra dough. Ken said, "Relax. You don't have to do anything
illegal to pick up an extra $50,000 to $200,000 a year! Just bet football
games the way Bob Dunbar tells you to. That's my secret." In
the last six years I have won over $500,000 thanks to Bob Dunbar and SCORE.
J.F., Ladue, MO needs and bills to be paid. Score wants
to make that seem possible with these letters. Score will make you broke
just like these imaginary people in the bogus Score Fan Forum. |
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