Over the past year the black market has moved in, and one of the things they've hijacked is the very search you'd think was safe: "sister sites" and "sites like".

Here's how it works. You type in something sensible, like "does Sun Bingo have sister sites" or "what sites are like Kitty Bingo". You trust what comes back, because it's Google, and Google's a reputable search engine, right? So the first page must be the good stuff.

Not anymore. Oh, you'll still find the odd legit result up there, one or two of the big, well-known affiliate names usually hold their spot. But the trouble is all the other honest sites, the smaller independent ones like mine, are being shoved down the rankings by parasites. Loads of them, dressed up to look like trusted guides, having gamed the system to sit right at the top of a search you thought was harmless.

And the whole con hangs on one thing: that you don't know the difference between a real sister site and a "site like" one. So let me clear it up, because once you understand it, their game falls apart.

A Sister Site Is Family. A "Site Like" One Is Just a Neighbour

A real sister site is actually one of the family. Same operator, same UK Gambling Commission licence, often the same games and wallet humming away underneath. Jackpotjoy and Virgin Games are sisters, for instance, both run by the same lot on the same licence, which is why the sites like Jackpotjoy on our guide are the real five, not the fifteen the copycats claim. That's family, and you can prove it on the register.

A "site like" one is a different thing entirely. It's just similar. Plays the same way, maybe looks the same, might even share the odd game room, but it's run by a completely different company on a completely different licence. A decent alternative, sure. But not related. Think next-door neighbour, not sister.

And that difference actually matters when you play. Self-exclude from one sister and it should cover the whole family on that licence. Do it at a "site like" one, and the other site's wide open, because they're not connected. Same with welcome offers, one per family, not one per lookalike.

How the Scammers Hide in the Muddle

Here's where it gets dodgy. The scammers and the lazy affiliate pages love this confusion, because it lets them pull a few tricks.

The first is padding. They'll take a real family and stuff the list with brands that just happen to share a games platform, calling them all sisters. It makes their page look longer and cleverer. It's bull. Sharing a slot supplier doesn't make two sites related any more than shopping at the same Tesco makes us cousins.

The second is nastier. They slip black market or fake sites in between the real names, hoping you won't notice the wrong'un sitting in the middle of a list of legit brands. You recognise four names, so you trust the fifth. That fifth one isn't licensed at all. It's why we spell out exactly which Mecca Bingo sister sites are owned by the same company, licence number and all, so there's nowhere for a fake to hide in the list.

And because most people can't tell a "sister" from a "site like" from an outright fake, the whole lot gets swallowed. That's the con.

So that's the con laid bare. But knowing the trick is only half of it. The real question is how you check a site for yourself, in seconds, without taking anyone's word for it. That's the easy bit, and it's coming up next.