Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Swedish criminal gangs using fake Spotify streams to launder money

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 88 posts

Re: Swedish criminal gangs using fake Spotify streams to launder money

#21

Post by styren »

rsynnott wrote: post #13

Seems... particularly inefficient. I would've thought there were easier ways.

It has the added benefit of both laundering money and acting as advertisement for criminal gangs. Most of the largest rappers were associated with gangs and the artists even got invited to interviews and got played on radio. Plausibly all this made possible by getting the initial publicity through Spotify.

Re: Swedish criminal gangs using fake Spotify streams to launder money

#23

Post by laserdancepony »

piva00 wrote: post #16
laserdancepony wrote: post #4

[flagged]

Gangs in Sweden have a diverse set of nationalities in their membership, including Swedes. Don't be a racist, it's scum.

"Diversity is our advantage!" I was told. Didn't know it predominantly included gang violence, as mentioned in the article.

You don't fool me into submission with either downvotes or accusations.

Re: Swedish criminal gangs using fake Spotify streams to launder money

#24

Post by laserdancepony »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #14
laserdancepony wrote: post #4

[flagged]

Sweden's gangs are a product of the failures of the Swedish state to heal socieconomic disparities and integrate all members of society. They are Swedish through and through.

[flagged]

Re: Swedish criminal gangs using fake Spotify streams to launder money

#25

Post by rsynnott »

melx wrote: post #20
rsynnott wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just a straight-up scam rather than laundering, generally (the money resulting from _that_ would then need laundering).

Money muling (the activity I described above) is a type of money laundering.

Oh, I assumed you were referring to the style of scam where a reversible/essentially phantom payment is made to someone's account (traditionally cheque, but it happens with credit transfers), and they make _real_ payments elsewhere (either via cash, crypto, or more difficult to reverse credit transfer). Initial transfer bounces, victim (or _maybe_ bank, depending) is out 100k.

Re: Swedish criminal gangs using fake Spotify streams to launder money

#26

Post by mrtksn »

I have a .com domain that I have been using for many years where a catch-all e-mail is configured. Since some time someone was creating fake Spotify accounts using my domain.

I don't have configuration error, no malware or anything like that and I contacted my e-mail service provider Zoho to check this out and they are positive that the e-mails I'm receiving from Spotify are authentic and there's no breach on their part.

I also contacted Spotify and they are absolutely sure that it's not possible to create accounts without confirming e-mails and can't do anything about it.

I have no idea how these accounts are created without me confirming the e-mail address but they are obviously fake, like a common name and numbers @mydomain .

So I used the forgot my password option to log in to check out what those accounts are doing and they were listening some obscure songs.

At some point, the person running the scheme decided to move to another domain as I received e-mail address change mails, they moved to some random .xyz domains.

Still keep receiving "3-months for free" promo from Spotify for those fake accounts.

https://dropovercl.s3.amazonaws.com/208ea6fc-821c-4d51-8c46-...

So yep, I'm sure there are many scams going on in Spotify.

Re: Swedish criminal gangs using fake Spotify streams to launder money

#27

Post by laserdancepony »

malermeister wrote: post #5
laserdancepony wrote: post #4

[flagged]

A criminal gang based in Sweden is a Swedish criminal gang by definition.

So was Al Quaida a Pakistani terrorist group because Bin Laden had his last residence there? Or was it Afghanistan?

Re: Swedish criminal gangs using fake Spotify streams to launder money

#28

Post by mistrial9 »

laserdancepony wrote: post #4

[flagged]

I'll go a different direction with this.. "nations" are a legal entity and a powerful one, but not the only means of connection in this modern world. Nations want to assert penultimate identity, but it is not true. In fact, financially successful people here on this chat system are actively hopping from one country to another, including for taxation reasons, while everyone points fingers at a group like this and argues their identity.

Identity is a complicated thing and always has been, really, but in these times with financial exchange and travel as active as it is.. the lines are just not that clear.

Re: Swedish criminal gangs using fake Spotify streams to launder money

#29

Post by johnnyjeans »

laserdancepony wrote: post #27
malermeister wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A criminal gang based in Sweden is a Swedish criminal gang by definition.

So was Al Quaida a Pakistani terrorist group because Bin Laden had his last residence there? Or was it Afghanistan?

leadership was pan-arab, organization was pan-islamist. are you confusing al-qaeda with the taliban?

Re: Swedish criminal gangs using fake Spotify streams to launder money

#30

Post by JumpinJack_Cash »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #14
laserdancepony wrote: post #4

[flagged]

Sweden's gangs are a product of the failures of the Swedish state to heal socieconomic disparities and integrate all members of society. They are Swedish through and through.

Yeah you know the word "gang" has been diluted and watered down quite a bit.

It used to be groups of armed men who'd rob banks and open fire on anyone who'd be selling drugs who was not their affiliate, oh and also open fire on any small business who'd refuse to pay them for protection.

This Spotify thing seems regular crime, I'd say bordering white collar crime given the non-violent nature of the procedure.

Post reply on HN