Swedish criminal gangs using fake Spotify streams to launder money | Spotify (www.theguardian.com)
from 1984@lemmy.today to technology@lemmy.ml on 06 Sep 2023 10:04
https://lemmy.today/post/886741

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Arigion@feddit.de on 06 Sep 2023 10:11 next collapse

Why would they use bitcoins to pay for the stream? If it’s already bitcoin why bother?

Squizzy@lemmy.world on 06 Sep 2023 10:29 next collapse

Because Bitcoin is really really traceable and doesn’t hold a stable value and is not widely accepted. So real currency is better and if you show a legitimate source then it is even better again.

newIdentity@sh.itjust.works on 06 Sep 2023 18:46 collapse

Bitcoin is traceable. It’s even more transparent than a bank account. Everyone can see how much money “you” have and where you spend it.

Squizzy@lemmy.world on 07 Sep 2023 00:16 collapse

I said really really traceable.

Delphia@lemmy.world on 06 Sep 2023 10:31 next collapse

Because then you can show the government the paper trail back to Spotify showing that the money came from “legitimate sources of income”

The government isnt stupid, someone getting paid in bitcoin isnt doing nothing for it.

Heastes@lemmy.world on 06 Sep 2023 11:41 next collapse

You want a legitimate source of income. If the bitcoins were obtained illegally or through illegal activities, you are fucked as soon as you try to cash out.

Even if you somehow manage to cash out and not get caught at that point, having large amounts of disposable cash with no legitimate source of income would also trigger some alarm bells.

Never forget that Al Capone went to jail for tax evasion, not all the other shit he did.

Agent641@lemmy.world on 06 Sep 2023 11:49 collapse

Allegedly

IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social on 06 Sep 2023 12:59 collapse

And then what? How do you then buy a house or a car with Bitcoin without alerting the authorities? Tax man will knock on the door and ask how you’ve obtained those bitcoins and ask why you didn’t report and pay taxes over those Bitcoin.

And bitcoin aren’t even truly anonymous.

TWeaK@lemm.ee on 06 Sep 2023 10:35 next collapse

Lol reminds me of Vulfpeck running a silent album and getting fans to listen to it. They raised about $10k and used it to fund a European tour.

mPony@kbin.social on 06 Sep 2023 12:42 collapse

I'm surprised John Cage didn't sue over it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4%E2%80%B233%E2%80%B3

TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works on 06 Sep 2023 10:42 next collapse

So Spotify is owned by Swedish gangs…

AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space on 06 Sep 2023 11:24 collapse

It’s partly owned by major record labels, so close enough

PuppyOSAndCoffee@lemmy.ml on 06 Sep 2023 11:28 next collapse

Swedish House Mafia got that gang game brrr brrr brrr

Certainity45@lemmy.ml on 06 Sep 2023 12:04 next collapse

Spotify is known for paying low for artists per listened song. So there are like millions of gangsters having Spotify running 24/7 to make their favorite artist earning their daily bread.

lemmy@linkopath.com on 06 Sep 2023 13:56 next collapse

4-5 years ago Steam had the same issue with their market place. Selling and buying skins for CS:GO and others.

www.bbc.com/news/technology-50262447

max@feddit.nl on 06 Sep 2023 15:30 next collapse

I’ve been getting a lot of ads on instagram for Spotify playlists. I wonder if that has anything to do with it, because how else would you make money from a playlist of all things?

jvisick@programming.dev on 06 Sep 2023 20:20 collapse

Spotify pays artists based on how many listens their songs get, so if you can get a bunch of bots to stream your music over and over you can get a legitimate income stream.

In this case, they’re using their illegal income to pay people to use a botnet to stream their songs - which then means they have a nice legal income instead.

max@feddit.nl on 07 Sep 2023 07:03 collapse

Interestingly enough there seem to be two types of playlists that get pushed in ads. One is a normal one with a big variety of artists. That seems the least profitable to me. The other only has songs by one “artist” that seems to only have remixes of popular songs. That’s the sketchy one, in my opinion.

mctoasterson@reddthat.com on 06 Sep 2023 16:07 collapse

I mean, if you’re already criminal element, have no scruples and you have some resources to work with, why not cut out the middleman and develop your own botnet for generating fake Spotify listens?