Amazon Music
Musician sent to prison for $10 million streaming fraud using AI bots
A North Carolina musician was sentenced to 18 months in prison for collecting more than $10 million in royalties from Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music in a massive streaming royalty fraud scheme. 54-year-old Michael Smith pleaded guilty in March after being indicted in September 2024 for fraudulently inflating his songs’ listening stats […]
Musician admits to $10M streaming royalty fraud using AI bots
North Carolina musician Michael Smith has pleaded guilty to collecting over $10 million in royalty payments through a massive streaming royalty fraud scheme on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music. 54-year-old Smith bought hundreds of thousands of songs generated using artificial intelligence (AI) from an accomplice, uploaded them to these streaming platforms, and […]
Amazon and Audible flooded with ‘forex trading’ and warez listings
Amazon, Amazon Music, and Audible, an Amazon-owned online audiobook and podcast service, have been flooded with bogus listings that push dubious “forex trading” sites, Telegram channels, and suspicious links claiming to offer pirated software. Amazon listings promote illicit sites Yesterday, GeekFeed reported how threat actors were abusing Spotify playlists and podcasts to promote pirated software and game cheats. The […]