How do you deal with a scammer? A simple Twitter poll like Ralph Massey’s outing of Nicky Palma last week? A lawsuit such as the one that hit James Hopkins last week? Or, perhaps, an epic, satirical 2plus2 post that pretends to be from the scammer’s (Fredrik Björklund) point of view?
Fredrik Björklund – The man behind a $5,000 scam?
That last choice is what one player did this week, naming Swedish online pro Fredrik jamaica_111 Björklund as the man behind a $5k+ scam.
In a post entitled‘How to print money: A beginners guide to scam,’ the OP – a friend of the pro who was scammed, MichielEasterdamz van Elsacker – puts himself in Björklund’s shoes, and tells us how and why to scam.
‘They say it’s immoral. They say it’s a scam; They say it’s illegal’
But who are they to tell us how to live and what laws to abide, when you can just get money from other people and tell them to shut the **** up pieces of ****.’
The basic story behind the wittily-designed ‘outing’ of Björklund is that the Swedish online pro allegedly hit up van Elsacker – aka Easterdamz on TwitchTV–when the latter was selling a piece of his second bullet in the $5200 buy-in WCOOP Main Event on PokerStars.
How the scam works…
As the ‘scamming guide’ shared on 2plus2 explains, ‘Timing and information are essential’…
- Make sure your mark is playing high stakes poker (likely to have money)
- Contact them and offer staking for the $5.2k PS Main event
- After you’ve made a deal for the staking ask the mark if he can send you money so we can play the ME too, and that as soon as the pending Pokerstars withdrawals we have are finished, we’ll send it back and also send the staking money’.
A familiar enough story, and one that happens regularly without any real downsides. This time, however, there is no happy ending to the story, although the $5k or so might buy one according to the OP.
‘This time we got lucky and it WORKED!!!!!!! …LMAO, THIS DUDE REALLY SEND US THE MONEY… WHAT A SCORE…FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS+++…We can now happily buy 100+ dildos and start pleasuring ourselves immediately!’
Well, a man wronged is often a man angry, and if the story is true then it’s no surprise he would throw in a bit of poetic license – but this tale doesn’t end with the money changing hands, of course.
Under ‘BUT WAIT JOB IS NOT YET DONE’, the second part of the scam kicks in – the hurtful part where you keep hoping you’ll get the money back, but the scammer has taken to insults and abuse.
The OP’s advice for the scammer is: ‘Make sure to no longer be kind and inviting and treat your mark as trash.’
It goes a bit like this: ‘…Keep making bullshit excuses…give them false hope for a few weeks until they themselves realize they’ve been scammed and stop messaging you first. Adding injury to insult at its finest.’
From the horse’s mouth…
Second-hand info often makes for a 3rd-rate story, of course, so a chat with the ‘scammer’ and the ‘scammed’ seemed in order.
Fredrik Björklund remained incommunicado despite several attempts to get hold of him, but MichielEasterdamz van Elsacker was happy, though a touch embarrassed, to share the details.
Having bust his 1st bullet, he needed to sell some of his second, which is when Björklundappeared, looking to buy action and get himself staked for the ME as well.
Having heard of the Swedish pro and recognizing he was one of the top donators in Hristivoje ‘ALLinPav’ Pavlovic’s TwitchTV streams, it seemed a reasonable enough plan.
A bit of checking ensued, and with Björklund showing screenshots of pending PokerStars cashouts, Michiel thought it was a risk worth taking.
“I’ve never had problems with swaps before,” Michiel explained. He added: “I knew it was a small risk, but you don’t always have a chance to really check things out when it’s busy and tournaments and streams are running.”
Björklund – tilted, unprofessional and rude
Both men made day two, but when Björklund bust out short of the money, says Michiel, his demeanor changed: “He seemed tilted; totally unprofessional about it”.
Within a day or two, Björklund was barely responding to questions about the $5k or more he owed the Belgian pro. Michiel recalls the moment he knew for sure he had been scammed.
“I asked a Swedish friend and he told me Björklund had scammed a friend of his for about $500.”
Despite offering to discuss it and perhaps set up a payment plan, Michiel says that Björklund “just got rude with me”
One of those exchanges was reproduced on the 2plus2 thread…
What happened next was the usual tale. Threats to go public met by more abuse, says Michiel. That brings us up to the 2plus2 post from this week.
Björklund has two 5-figure cashes to his name from PokerStars SCOOP last year. Moreover, he has a $246,097 runner-up payday in the PokerStars $1050 buy-in Turbo Series Main Event. His total lifetime online winnings are $654,781 in total.
Under his nickname freddeaik, the Stockholm man also has recorded winnings of $158,266 on partypoker, and $13,500 on 888poker.
Of course, letting players know about scams and potential scams is hugely important. However, there are two sides to most stories, so if Fredrik wants to get in touch…
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