London DJs use Stolen Credit Cards to buy Music

[Careyn]

LONDON DJS USE STOLEN CREDIT CARDS TO BUY OWN MUSIC ON ITUNES - New York Post


A group of popular London deejays used stolen credit cards to buy their own music on iTunes in an elaborate scheme that netted about $650,000 in bogus royalties and sent the musicians skyrocketing up the "indie" charts, The Post has learned.

The deejays recorded 19 compilations of music they spun at nightclubs, uploaded them on iTunes through a Brooklyn-based service and then downloaded them an astonishing 65,000 times on accounts set up with the pilfered cards, law-enforcement sources said.

Along with the profits, the performers nearly made a second killing -- they caught the attention of music industry executives curious about their newfound popularity.

Authorities in New York and London unmasked the group of "independent musicians" in recent months, and ring members are expected to be rounded up as early as this morning in Britain.

The takedown caps an international Internet manhunt conducted by Brooklyn prosecutors inside DA Charles Hynes' office, NYPD computer crime experts and their counterparts and a London Metropolitan Police unit known as SCD-6.

Britished authorities announced this morning that they had made nine arrests in connection with the scam.

The scam began in August with the DJs paying an annual $30-per-album fee to the Williamsburg company Tunecore, a music distribution service, to get their albums uploaded onto iTunes.

The ring then obtained thousands of stolen credit card numbers and painstakingly opened iTunes accounts with them and began downloading their albums at $10 apiece.

In December, Apple, the parent company of iTunes, began to receive stop-payment orders from various credit card companies, saying accounts were established fraudulently.

A month later, Apple contacted the NYPD, which enlisted the help of the Brooklyn district attorney.

Investigators scoured the Internet for the origins of the downloads and ultimately determined they were made on London computers.

They then matched the identities of IP computer-address owners and musicians.

The thieves collected about $389,000 of the loot -- and nearly got the rest before the scam unraveled, the sources said


Wonder who it was.

[Jaques Beraques]

kind of dumb isn´t it???

[Careyn]

Originally Posted by Jaques Beraques

kind of dumb isn´t it???

That's quite clever.
Except the part about getting caught.

[msl]

Agreed. So who is it?


.

[golden beers]

next time do it from an internet cafe...

[kasprouch]

Originally Posted by golden beers

next time do it from an internet cafe...

exactly... stupid fkrs


gonna check the charts and see who it was ...



how the hell you check em?

[triez]

Our morality has not kept up with our technology. I expect to see more and more clever and lots of really dumb internet scams like this, it is a virtual wild west in cyberspace.

[Beermaster]

Well its clearly nobody well known or remotely famous as they wouldn't need to resort to this kind of scam.

It's probably a bunch of wannabees who's day jobs are dealing drugs and beating up old ladies.

[digital 1010]

Originally Posted by Beermaster

Well its clearly nobody well known or remotely famous as they wouldn't need to resort to this kind of scam.

It's probably a bunch of wannabees who's day jobs are dealing drugs and beating up old ladies.

I didnt realise Blazing Squad were back in the charts

[Getafix]

Pretty clever scam, too bad they forgot to cover up their tracks.

[space2012]

Originally Posted by Careyn

LONDON DJS USE STOLEN CREDIT CARDS TO BUY OWN MUSIC ON ITUNES - New York Post

netted about $650,000 in bogus royalties
The deejays recorded 19 compilations

downloaded them an astonishing 65,000 times

they caught the attention

Authorities in New York and London unmasked the group of "independent musicians"

Britished authorities announced this morning that they had made nine arrests

The scam began in August with the DJs paying an annual $30-per-album fee to the Williamsburg company Tunecore, a music distribution service, to get their albums uploaded onto iTunes.

The ring then obtained thousands of stolen credit card numbers and painstakingly opened iTunes accounts with them and began downloading their albums at $10 apiece.

In December, Apple, the parent company of iTunes, began to receive stop-payment orders from various credit card companies,

Investigators scoured the Internet for the origins of the downloads and ultimately determined they were made on London computers.

They then matched the identities of IP computer-address owners and musicians.

The thieves collected about $389,000 of the loot -- and nearly got the rest before the scam unraveled, the sources said

Wonder who it was.

65.000 complete album downloads
x$10usd. each
$650.000
collected $389.000
$261.000
9 arrests
19 compilations x$30usd. per album. anual.
begin Agust last year, <1 year aprox.
=
65.000 downloads in 1 year

to be greedy damages the bag.

[vixapphire]

Interesting, because my primary credit card number was stolen late last year and used to purchase about $90 worth of music on iTunes.

I've never purchased anything or registered as a user on iTunes, being a beatport man myself, so it was quite a surprise to see my card misused in that way. Wonder if it was one of those that these guys got ahold of.

[Reptil]

well it wasn't me...

[Acid Hazard]

Haha, morons.

[ignatius]

Originally Posted by Beermaster

Well its clearly nobody well known or remotely famous as they wouldn't need to resort to this kind of scam.

hmm.. you mean like how franz ferdinand's management committed a huge payola scam w/clear channel? seems like already well known and successful people commit illegal acts and hedge their bets all the time...

but you're probably right.. probably no one we've heard too much about. i'd laugh if it was though.

sooner or later the court documents will go public and the names will be revealed.

[Mantik]

but how the hell they got all those stolen credit-card numbers.
did i overread something important

[Neutrikconnector]

Not slamming anyone, but oh the irony if it was. . . .



JUSTICE!

[Ol' Betsey]

Originally Posted by Mantik

but how the hell they got all those stolen credit-card numbers.
did i overread something important

Haven't you been watching the news?

Man there's whole websites out there on the balck market that just that sell that shit for nothing. Literally like €1.00 per credit card number. If that!

Supposedly, and I'm only repeating what I've seen on news broadcasts annd and these credit fraud bulletins, but most of these sites originate in Eastern Europe/Asia and you can buy complete personal profiles.

This identity theft shit is serious!

R.

[Phaidon]

Originally Posted by triez

it is a virtual wild west in cyberspace.

+1000 !

[alchey]

"Gee, whoever stole all these credit cards sure likes DJ so and so..."

[Popbott]

If they were intelligent enough to somewhat pull off such a complex operation, why in the WORLD would they not think that the orgin of the downloads would be matched the identities of their IP computer-address? Duh-oiiii.

[Jaques Beraques]

Originally Posted by Popbott

If they were intelligent enough to somewhat pull off such a complex operation, why in the WORLD would they not think that the orgin of the downloads would be matched the identities of their IP computer-address? Duh-oiiii.

Intelligent?????
I still think, they must be super dumb!!!!!!
The idea may look smart, but how can one be sooooo stupid to use his own ip for such a thing????

I just don´t get it

drugs???

[Derp]

Originally Posted by Neutrikconnector

Not slamming anyone, but oh the irony if it was. . . .



JUSTICE!

Ya beat me to it. I was thinking that if it had to be anybody, it would be Deadmau5.

[nofi]

even if they bought the music from an internet cafe.... it's going to be pretty obvious to itunes when every single sale for DJ wannabee turns out to be a stolen credit card from the same city - kinda obvious that it's DJ wannabee using stolen credit cards as he's the one getting all the money.


@ triez:

people have been using stolen credit card details for as long as there have been credit cards - when you think about it, the whole system of just needing a couple of numbers to access someone's bank details is NUTS. internet just helps automate it on a bigger scale.

Unfortunately in this case, whats needed is for technology to catch up with general human morality.... linking bank numbers to a physical object like a physical Q&A code generator is a good first step. My friends already have to do that in london, cause bank detail scams are so massively huge over there. They have a little calculator shaped thing tht they need to use just to do their online banking.

[chrisrnps]

Clever?

The practice of "chart hyping" has a looooooong and storied history, particularly in the UK charts in the 1950s and 1960s. Typically the artist's management, label, or third parties hired by the same would buy physical copies from the shops that were known to be on "the list" that reported to NME, Record Mirror, and the like, in the hopes that getting a single into the bottom of the charts, or bumping it up a few notches, would gain airplay and then the single would "take off" on its own. More recent incidences of this included allegations of U.S. record companies offering "incentives" to record stores to swipe certain discs more than once on Soundscan, and Eurovision / boy-band / girl-band svengali-types on the other side of the Atlantic.

The only thing "new" here is the use of stolen credit card numbers and iTunes.


German singer hits sour note in Eurovision scandal. 28/04/2005. ABC News Online

Birmingham Post - Life & Leisure - Birmingham Culture - Charts ban the Midas golden touch

Walsh bought up Boyzone in bulk - Times Online

[Sid Viscous]

Originally Posted by s-cube

Pretty clever scam, too bad they forgot to cover up their tracks.

They actually trying to reveal their tracks..
no wait...

[vixapphire]

Originally Posted by Derp

Ya beat me to it. I was thinking that if it had to be anybody, it would be Deadmau5.

Really? In the interviews with him that I've read, he comes across as sounding like he's college educated (from a high-line school) and from a well-off background, with more sophistication/class than this scheme would require. He doesn't seem the low-life that would resort to this sort of idiocy, but you may know differently than I.

[Derp]

Originally Posted by vixapphire

Really? In the interviews with him that I've read, he comes across as sounding like he's college educated (from a high-line school) and from a well-off background, with more sophistication/class than this scheme would require. He doesn't seem the low-life that would resort to this sort of idiocy, but you may know differently than I.

“It puts me to ****ing sleep, to be quite honest; I don’t really see the technical merit in playing two songs at the same speed together and it bores me to ****ing tears and hopefully, with all due respect to the DJ type that will ****ing go the way of the dinosaur, I'd like them to dis-a-****ing-pear! It's so middle man, they’re like ****ing lawyers! You need them, but they’re ****ing ****s. God bless them, they’re my number one customer right, so I’m not gonna go dis every ****ing DJ. But to say you become this massive, "up on a podium" performer by playing other peoples productions, at the same speed as someone else's productions and fading between the two of them, I don’t get it...”

"let me start by admitting…. i did not grow up in the EDM scene. I dont consider my career to be about “being a DJ”. i dont have “DJ roots” . I never had any intention of becoming a DJ. and my conception of “DJ’s” in general from this standpoint has always been… .. being forced into some nightclub when i would have rather stayed home, and watch some dood mash the “play / stop” button and occaisionally move a pitch slider. Love it or hate it…. that’s just been my conception of the traditional “dj”. Mind you, im not a total ****ing idiot, and i recognize talent when i see it…. and there are many talented DJ’s out there for sure. In my eyes, those would be the individuals who utilize technology to deliver the music in ways that are both skillful and innovate, moreso than my vision of the “play/stop/pitch” DJ. To me, the club is about “the party” …. the people make the night… the DJ obviously needs to use that to his advantage, it’s give and take."

Yeah... Sophistication, class, and education, alright.

[Macky]

Originally Posted by Sid Viscous

They actually trying to reveal their tracks..
no wait...

[kasprouch]

Originally Posted by Derp

“It puts me to ****ing sleep, the people make the night… the DJ obviously needs to use that to his advantage, it’s give and take."

Yeah... Sophistication, class, and education, alright.

what a d'ouchebag... if he's lame enough to go on a rant like that, he deserves the regular bashing he gets.



cant be screwed to listen to his music after reading that... anything worthy of attention?