Beware of Fantasy Baseball Private League Scams

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-size: medium;">The below is part of an article I wrote called "Beware of Fantasy Baseball Scams," (google the article name to see the original article), and believe there is no better place to provide a community service than post it here:


<span style="color: #000000; font-size: small;">Every year
guys that love fantasy baseball decide to do something they would never do if
not for their love of the hobby, they find someone over the internet posting a
"Private League" and then send a complete stranger money because they traded an
email or spoke to someone who seemed nice, usually once, over the phone. Then
they play a "money" league on a free site and, if they win, they do not see a
single dime. Now they surely have a clue their might be a problem getting paid
even from the beginning, but that idea comes to fruition when the commissioner
takes him out of league soon after the season ends, wont take his calls, and
wont answer his emails. At that point, he knows he has been ripped
off.

Now do not take these comments as disparaging to private leagues. I
began playing a private league. I built a passion for the game playing private
leagues. I think if you are getting together with a trusted group of guys, face
to face, to draft, and a trusted member of the group is handling the money, you
should definately go for it. But what is happening all too often is intelligent
people are trusting flat out strangers (who are scammers) with their money, and
often, the only one who knows it was a scam is the actual winner.

Here is an in season clue:
After you have paid, you are told that for each players
"protection" you cannot post your email address or telephone number. If you do
so you will be immediately removed from the league. At the end of the year, when
the scammer removes the winner (who is the one person who knows this is a scam
as they are not going to get paid) from the league, the winner therefore has no
way to notify the other team owners it is all a scam and he was never paid. So
the scammer can continue to scam the remaining team owners over and
over.

Scammers boast 100% payout and they usually want only 1 winner.
They collect everyone's buy-in knowing full well that they will keep the money
if they do not win. In other cases, they play multiple teams and trade
accordingly to ensure they win.

Clearly, this is not what fantasy
baseball is all about. But it does happen every year and gives the entire hobby
a black eye. This is a wonderful hobby which you can enjoy for years to come. 
Be safe this year and make smart decisions. 

Just like a Met fan to never trust anyone lol only kidding, well the Lg that i posted on line Lg looking for 3 players Long island that your post was put in beteew. I've been running for 9 yrs is in fact a real LG no ripping off people, your invited into my house for the draft so you know where i live. why do you think this is a ripoff. Its a live draft your in my house and your meeting everyone get a lift Met fan

Iron Horse, my post was clearly not written with your post in mind. Honestly, I never even read your post. My post was part of an article written for another site. If you have done this for nine years, I am confident you agree with much of what I have written.

Good post, BigMetFan. Sadly, many (probably most) people run legitimate private leagues, and scammers know this and take advantage of the honest people in our hobby. The warning signs you posted make a lot of sense.  

Very good post. While I have not been victimized of this, it is certainly something that fantasy players need to watch out for as the industry is growing to levels that make it hard to avoid the idiots out there that want to scam for a few free bucks.

Hopefully we all do our homework, as best possible, prior to sending in cash to strangers. But hopeful honesty, trust and a little faith in Commissioners is ultimately the only way to kick a league off. Truly a fantasy catch-22.

LEAGUESAFE.COM IS THE ANSWER....

leaguesafe is fine for collecting money, but it doesn't assure several leaguemates don't work together to win. get to know the commish if possible or get referred by someone

In-person auctions or drafts are so much better than online that I recommend finding locals who are interested in creating a league.  This way you don't ever have to worry about anonymous scammers.  If you live in rural areas, you'll probably have to travel to the nearest city but it will be worth it.