The FBI and UK police have captured a group of individuals who allegedly purchased their own music from the Apple iTunes store with stolen credit cards, generating revenue for themselves from the sales. The group allegedly created music which they provided to an internet company in America, which uploaded the music to the Apple iTunes and Amazon music stores. But the FBI believes the group then used 1500 stolen credit and gift cards to purchase the songs in purchases worth up to $US750,000.
Both Amazon and Apple iTunes were unaware of the fraudulent activities and paid $US300,000 in royalties from the purchases. Unlike the App store where royalties are paid at a set rate, artists on iTunes organise deals individually with record labels and music companies.
Scotland Yard told the Times newspaper that, “The arrests are the result of a parallel investigation with the FBI that the unit began in February 2009.”
“It was established that between September 2008 and January 2009 a UK criminal network provided music via an online US company that uploaded the tracks to Apple iTunes and Amazon.com for sale.”
Apple has not yet commented on the issue.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
