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Online music fraud 'gang' arrested

12 June 2009 13:21 by Andre "DVDBack23" Yoskowitz | 3 comments

Metropolitan Police and the FBI have announced today the arrest of 10 members of what are being called an online music fraud "gang" accused of downloading their own uploaded music thousands of times using stolen credit cards to reap royalty payments.

The songs, which were uploaded and available for sale on Amazon and iTunes, were downloaded over 700,000 times using 1500 different stolen credit card numbers, allowing the suspects to reap over $300,000 USD in royalties from the two major retailers.

Seven men and three women were arrested today in London, Birmingham, Kent and Wolverhampton, each accused conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering.

"It was established that between September 2008 and January 2009 a UK criminal network provided music via an online US company who uploaded the tracks to Apple iTunes and Amazon.com for sale," said a Scotland Yard statement. "This is a significant case for the e-crime unit, which was set up 12 months ago.

"The unit has been set up to provide a point of expertise and a national and international response to online crime. The nature of online crime means the unit are actively developing cross-border partnerships both with other international crime agencies and businesses."

Adds Met Detective Chief Inspector Terry Wilson: "This has been a complex investigation to establish what we believe to be an international conspiracy to defraud Apple and Amazon. This investigation, with its national and international dimension, exemplifies why we have set up this national response to e-crime.

"It shows the success that can be achieved through our close working relationship with the FBI.

"We are now making it more risky for criminals who seek to exploit the internet and commit e-crime across national borders. We are working hard through partnership with industry and law enforcement to combat e-crime and are committed to pursuing those responsible."

Permalink to this article | Topics: Lawsuits & Legislation Online music services

Albert Gonzalez pleads guilty to stealing 170 million credit card numbers (13 September 2009)

Stephen Fry defends non-commercial piracy (13 July 2009)

Pirated goods seizures explode in EU (10 July 2009)

French pirate receives jail time, fine (6 July 2009)

Demand is extremely high for iPhone 3G S (15 June 2009)

Label profit falls with new iTunes prices (7 May 2009)

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Discuss this article!
chubbyInc (Member) 13 June 2009 23:33
For a moment it was a brilliant idea, then when authorities checked the purchase history on the stolen cards and found that the same song was purchased 1000s of time they figured something was amiss. [ + quote]
JOHNSTARR (Senior Member) 14 June 2009 3:07
Was the song any good :) Actually I'm curious how ---->THEY<---- (not looking for a debate on how easy it is) obtained the 1500 credit cards. [ + quote]
Serialluv (Newbie) 14 June 2009 18:39
*Originally posted by JOHNSTARR:* Was the song any good :) Actually I'm curious how ---->THEY<---- (not looking for a debate on how easy it is) obtained the 1500 credit cards. It's very easy if you know how ;) I'm waiting to see how much they try and charge them with fraud for though over 300k in royalties that's going to be blown up into stupid billions of dollars in infringements etc. Im in no way condoning(sp?) the actions of these people though. Just interested in how this will be tried and under what copyright charges not just fraud charges. [ + quote]