Italian pay-TV piracy ring busted
October 19, 2021
From Branislav Pekic in Rome
Italy’s Guardia di Finanza (Financial Police) has busted a pay-TV piracy ring and cited some 1,800 people for pay-TV subscription fraud.
They were all sold pirated IPTV subscriptions to pay-TV platforms, including Mediaset Premium, Sky, DAZN and Disney Channel, by a 70-year old man living in Varese.
The man, who is under investigation on suspicion of “counterfeiting, violation of intellectual property and computer fraud”, hacked illegally into the platforms and sold pirated subscriptions in many Italian regions online.
He is alleged to have illegally profited €500,000 between 2017 and 2020 from his activity.
The illegal subscribers have been issued with fines totaling some €300,000 and cited for receiving stolen goods.
The police probed bank accounts in order to discover evidence of the illegal subscriptions. The customers made payments to the Varese ‘reseller’ by means of bank transfers or top-ups with prepaid cards.