Reports from the BBC suggest that the Scottish Border Council’s website had been temporarily displaying illegal gambling ads as a result of an outdated backlog system.

The local authority reportedly acted swiftly to correct the issue after being notified by the BBC about the display of black market websites, which affected 16 of the 69 community council webpage listings.

At a further glance, 15 of those 16 webpages used to be built and hosted by now-defunct website directory Online Borders, the BBC noted, which was later hijacked to display links to offshore gambling websites. 

The links remained on the Scottish Border Council’s webpage until they were flagged down by the BBC, which subsequently prompted the Council to ask local authorities to ensure that their pages are up-to-date.

Consulting with a cyber security expert, the BBC added that hijacking specific domains can often be a strategy to target certain groups of people. In this case, it was most likely people from the local community who would’ve seen a list of illegal gambling websites appearing to be recommended from within that same community.

This is not the first such case. Earlier in June, the Old Catton Parish Council was also a victim of a similar act, unknowingly displaying an ad for an Indonesian online slots casino.

The gambling sector as a whole is far from immune to such attacks. In 2024, SBC News reported that none other than the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) had its website taken over to promote an illegal online slots firm based in Southeast Asia.

Written in Indonesian, the message appeared to be from an email inbox, describing the services that Gacor 2023 has to offer, and inviting users to create an account to deposit real money, including through a credit card.

Without providing further comments at the time, IBIA was also quick to act after being notified by SBC News.