Jun 12 2009Gang Uses Stolen Credit Cards To Buy Own Music On Amazon/iTunes, Collect Royalties
That's right, some gang of criminal masterminds operating out of Britain uploaded songs to iTunes and Amazon and then, using 1,500 stolen credit cards, bought $750,000 worth of their own songs, netting them nearly $300,000 in royalties.
Six men and three women were arrested yesterday by 60 officers at addresses in London, Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Kent. A man in his forties, was arrested later.
They are all being held in custody on suspicion of conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering.A police source said: "We will not know why they did what they did until we have conducted all the interviews."
Yeah, gee, I WONDER WHY THEY DID IT. Probably the same reason anyone partakes in criminal activity -- to pretend you're a rockstar.
Criminal gang bought own music on iTunes and Amazon using stolen cards [timesonline]
Thanks to ff, who tried to sell a music video on iTunes that was secretly just a video of him fapping.
Reader Comments
1. Phil - June 12, 2009 2:27 PM
Wow. Ingenious and stupid, all at once.
2. mrk - June 12, 2009 2:27 PM
first ever!!!
3. Butter Knife - June 12, 2009 2:27 PM
Hollywood Undead?
4. Saisuke - June 12, 2009 2:28 PM
I feel sorry for them owners of the cards.
5. VarientX - June 12, 2009 2:32 PM
that is so pro, im tempted to take my parents cards and buy my music instead of condoms from now on
6. Lizzie - June 12, 2009 2:35 PM
its actually a pretty smart plan if it wasn't so retarded!
7. Ryan Cooper - June 12, 2009 2:37 PM
Wow. That would've been the best plan ever.....If they hadn't gotten caught.
8. 1st, 2nd, 3rd Police - June 12, 2009 2:38 PM
They need to go to jail
9. naas - June 12, 2009 2:44 PM
smart enough to get the credit cards & dumb enough to fūck it all up afterwards
10. Timbo - June 12, 2009 2:44 PM
Whatever happened to writing good music?... Losers...
11. catch22 - June 12, 2009 3:03 PM
BRILLIANT
12. Octopus Pie - June 12, 2009 3:08 PM
At least the police were smart enough not to tell the media which songs the criminals were downloading. Otherwise there might have been a few more people buying the songs just for a lark.
13. dubba - June 12, 2009 3:10 PM
itdve worked if they figured not a single song on there by anyone remotely famous would make that much money in that amount of time
several copies sold then p2p goes nuts and you make nothing else
14. Suicidal Roses - June 12, 2009 3:10 PM
GENIUS!!!!!!!!
15. Jimmy - June 12, 2009 3:11 PM
Chad Kroeger sinks to a new low
16. ffffffff - June 12, 2009 3:20 PM
anyone who wants to see the video search itunes for artist fffffffffffffffffff (19 fs)
17. Lord of the horse beaters - June 12, 2009 3:31 PM
I bet they bought it all on the same 9 computers making for such an an easy trace it's pathetic, idiots.
18. Daisy - June 12, 2009 3:36 PM
FAKE!!!!
This is a complete photoshop job. You can tell its a fake because the shadow's are all wrong.
this is exactly like that scene in the movie Never Back Down where Max hacked into a neighbors computer and downloaded kiddie porn, and then called the police on him for grabbing his ass. The neighbor went to prison, and Max was able to but the house for cheap, and expand his empire.
19. Gordon "Fücking" Shumway - June 12, 2009 3:41 PM
20 minutes until beer o'clock. Oh boy! I can hardly wait!
20. Sashimi Tidbits - June 12, 2009 4:17 PM
People will do anything these days for money... almost unsurprising considering the state of our economy! But this was definitely desperate.
http://www.sashimi-tidbits.com/
21. $.02 and a pocket full of FAH-Q - June 12, 2009 4:27 PM
GFS - I'm still stuck for another hour and a half. You lucky bastard.
Wow, some great ideas turn into extremely poorly executed plans. Enjoy jail, and all of the nights thinking of the stuff you should've thought of before doing it.
22. Name (required): - June 12, 2009 5:19 PM
60 officers? Damn.
23. Pew³ - June 12, 2009 7:03 PM
What kind of UK gang also has their own band?
Was this gangsta rap?
Or gangsta new wave?
24. Captain - June 13, 2009 6:45 AM
Must See!!!
http://captain-hash.mybrute.com
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25. Dave - June 13, 2009 11:17 AM
lol I wonder how they got all the credit card numbers.
http://taxiart.ca
26. Pat - June 13, 2009 11:34 AM
@3 LOL!
27. Breakup Makeup - June 14, 2009 12:37 AM
I hope they get famous from prison
28. pro - June 15, 2009 4:25 AM
These were damn desperate souls, I like the idea of them screwing with itunes. the rule is everything is allowed just don't get caught!
29. Jaded Icon - June 15, 2009 7:43 AM
The sad thing is that it was a british pop band. (More hardcore than their punk bands)
30. Darth - June 15, 2009 10:19 AM
This is a pretty bad move from this band,being caught.Otherwise it would be pretty genius.
31. Ed - December 21, 2010 10:21 PM
They're skyrocketing "popularity" on itunes was probably what brought the heat.