The Australian Federal Police has told a 23-year old Sydney man to compensate no less than $1.2 million in cryptocurrency for his crimes of nicking Netflix and Spotify accounts from around the world and selling them to others. He used an unknown algorithm to get the subscription credentials. The court of law has also ordered the person to submit his algorithm.
This case is also a groundbreaking one for the Federal Government, as there has never been a forfeiture of this volume in its history. The perpetrator will have to repay in cryptocurrency, though, and that part of the conviction will remain unchanged no matter what. The real owners of the Netflix accounts that he stole have already been notified to change their login credentials.
The unnamed offender pleaded guilty in front of the Supreme Court judge, who sentenced him to a two-year intensive correction order. He also confessed that he had a partner in his Netflix crimes who lives in the USA.
While many of the stolen usernames and passwords would not work, the website in question, wickedgen.com, was a cheaper option for wanna-be Netflix, Spotify, and Hulu users. These crimes went on for more than two years, totally unnoticed by the AFP.
How the Netflix Fraud Investigation Started
The AFP disclosed that these Netflix and Spotify accounts belonged to random people from different regions of Australia. Some of them were also from foreign countries, including the US. The FBI tipped the AFP off in May 2018, and the investigation was underway.
Cybercrime investigators and AFP officials stormed into the offender’s Dee Why home and seized all his cryptocurrencies and electronic equipment. The long investigation exposed that although WickedGen was his most-used website, he and his partner owned three more websites serving the same purpose of providing stolen Netflix and other credentials. These three websites are AccountBot, Autoflix, and HyperGen.
The AFP said after the investigation:
“Across the four subscription services, the offender had at least 152,863 registered users and provided at least 85,925 subscriptions to illegally access legitimate streaming services. The man received more than AUD $680,000 through PayPal, by selling subscriptions through these sites. He converted some of these proceeds into various cryptocurrencies.”
The AFP has already confiscated the person’s cryptocurrencies and also his PayPal account. But the whole amount of $1.2m was not in them. And that’s why the court order was given.
Where Will the Seized Money Go?
Karen Andrews, the Home Affairs Minister, has iterated that the seized Netflix fraud money will go towards the improvement of the AFP facilities and also towards community development. She stated in a press release:
“Good work by the AFP has seen a criminal stripped of their ill-gotten gains, and this money redirected to enhancing the safety and security of… Australia.”
Justin Gough, the Assistant Commissioner of the AFP, told the media:
“The operation was an excellent example of the AFP’s cybercrime investigations and asset confiscation capabilities”
In addition to this Netflix account fraud case, AFP’s much-decorated wing, the Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT), has seized no less than $54 million in assets throughout the last financial year.
