UK Gang Caught After $750K Online Music Fraud Scam

LSDelirious writes "10 individuals in the UK have been arrested in connection with an online fraud gang, whereby the group created several songs, had the songs uploaded to iTunes and Amazon, then used thousands of stolen credit cards to repeatedly purchase the songs from these services. It is estimated that they charged approximately $750,000 worth of fraudulent purchases, netting the group over $300,000 in royalties payments."

Comments

Whos says the online music model works

[P1aGu3ed]

I say we go back to the outdated model of printing CDs and using stolen credit cards to buy boxes of them. So much easier, and they would never have been caught. No really.

Nothing new...

[Manip]

Just traditional money laundering via a slightly new route. They used to do similar things with Auction Houses, they'd list an item of no real value and then buy it. Dirty money into clean money!

Well, they do have a good example...

[santax]

When compared to the 'guys who stick up for artists (and take 95+ % of the earnings' these guys are saints. Give them a medal! At least they made their own music!

And yet...

[Anonymous Coward]

The Spice Girls remain at large.

Were the songs any good?

[Shag]

...and where can I get a torrent of them?

Like premium rate phone lines

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember when they first came in in the UK?

The premium rate phone number renter was paid their cut monthly by BT.

But ordinary subscribers are billed quarterly.

So here's how some people made a lot of money.....

Start two companies. One of them rents a load of premium rate numbers and phone lines. The other rents a load of ordinary phone lines.

Company 2 then calls Company 1's premium rate lines incessently.

For three months in a row, Co1 gets cheques from BT.

At the start of Month 4 both companies get phone bills.

At around the start of Month 6 Co 2 gets final reminders, and is possibily cut off from service and threatened with all sorts of legal actions.

But, no matter, both Companies have vanished with around 6 hefty BT cheques.

Profit!

Re:Like premium rate phone lines

[Anonymous Coward]

Listen to this one then; you open a company called the Arse Tickler's Faggot Fan Club. You take an advert in the back page of some gay mag, advertising the latest in arse-intruding dildos, sell it a bit with, er... I dunno, "does what no other dildo can do until now", latest and greatest in sexual technology. Guaranteed results or money back, all that bollocks. These dills cost twenty-five each; a snip for all the pleasure they are going to give the recipients. They send a cheque to the company name, nothing offensive, er, Bobbie's Bits or something, for twenty-five. You put these in the bank for two weeks and let them clear. Now this is the clever bit. Then you send back the cheques for twenty-five pounds from the real company name, Arse Tickler's Faggot Fan Club, saying sorry, we couldn't get the supply from America, they have sold out. Now you see how many of the people cash those cheques; not a single soul, because who wants his bank manager to know he tickles arses when he is not paying in cheques!

-- Tom

Re:Follow the money

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it? A good drop house is a useful thing, and if you fence the goods properly, you're not easily traceable. It requires feet on the ground to catch you.

This, on the other hand, is retarded. There's a simple digital "paper trail" right to your bank.

Copy(right)cat

[nausea_malvarma]

A criminal gang that scams people out of their money with recorded music? Looks like the RIAA is inspiring copycat crimes.

from the dj-felonious dept.

[Speare]

I think "from the felonious-monk dept." has a better ring to it.

And that's nothing

[Punto]

that's nothing, in the process of pulling off this scam, they lost $2 billion to piracy! nobody's safe!