Culture

UK DJs Busted in $400,000 iTunes Royalty Scam

by Jordan Yerman | June 12, 2009 at 09:33 am

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Ten UK DJs were arrested after an innovative scam carried out on iTunes. The crew used stolen credit card numbers to buy 65,000 copies of their own albums. This brought the pair both higher chart ratings and over $400,000 in royalties from their record label. The group was busted after a five-month investigation.

The as-yet-unnamed DJs utilized over 1,500 stolen credit cards from several countries to carry out the heist, netting sales of over $800,000.

News of the scam not only got the two DJs arrested, but also invalidated several record charts.

Sixty officers from the Met's central e-crime unit today arrested seven men and three women in London, Birmingham, Kent and Wolverhampton.

After the arrests, detective chief inspector Terry Wilson was quoted as stating “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.”