A 21-year old Australian man has been arrested for allegedly selling Hulu, Spotify, and Netflix passwords online. The Australian man operated a website that generated passwords for popular streaming services including the aforementioned trio. It is being reported that the man made AU$300,000 (US$211,000) from his operation.
The man was arrested after an investigation that involved the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as the Australian Federal Police force. The name of the website this Australian man operated was named WickedGen.com, which reportedly boasted over 120,000 users and nearly one million passwords and account details. The site offered memberships to users in return for access to a variety of accounts across a variety of streaming services.
The man obtained the bulk of the passwords by surfing through previously leaked data and harvesting his inventory. Federal officials have searched the man’s residence and seized his computers and other related equipment.
This arrest is another example of the value and importance of our relationship with the FBI. These partnerships – both internationally and domestically – are critical in law enforcement being able to respond to rapidly-evolving and increasingly global crime types. Individuals in Australia have had their personal data stolen for the sake of individual greed. These types of offenses can often be a precursor to more insidious forms of data theft and manipulation, which can have greater consequences for the victims involved.
Chris Goldsmid – Australian Federal Police
The man’s name was not released but he has been charged with a variety of cybercrimes and with using false identities. These types of sites aren’t uncommon, especially when they are harvesting data from major data breaches which makes it very easy to set up.
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