Gambling addicts aren’t the only ones being taken for a ride by prediction markets.
As gambling platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi become have more popular than ever before, financial criminals are also using prediction markets to unleash fraud and graft on an unprecedented scale.
According to the Wall Street Journal, this phenomenon was identified as far back as February, when a payment processing company contracted by Polymarket flagged a massive rise in bets made with stolen debit cards.
Essentially, fraudsters began by plugging stolen financial information into the prediction market to make wagers. If they won, the perpetrators would then withdraw the funds, syphoning them into alternative payment methods under their control.
