In the Murcia Region
The National Police detains those responsible for a website that fraudulently offered pay television channels
They had some 1,300 clients and in the three years they had been developing this activity, they would have caused economic damage to the legitimate holders of the rights of more than 2,145,000 euros.
May 19, 2020.- Agents of the National Police have arrested the two persons responsible for a website that allegedly fraudulently offered pay television channels. They had some 1,300 clients from Beniaján (Murcia) and other neighboring towns and in the three years that they had been developing this activity, they would have caused economic damage to the legitimate holders of the rights of more than 2,145,000 euros.
The investigation began in late 2019 when the agents received a complaint that provided data on the irregular service that was offering a multitude of conditional access channels without authorization from the legitimate owners. With the first steps, the agents verified that the reported website offered telephone and internet services to a wide region of Murcia. In addition, monthly subscriptions were offered to a wide range of television channels, the vast majority of which were conditional.
Subsequently, a local telephone operator located in Murcia was identified, which was administered by two people. In addition, this company was registered to be a cable operator, but not as a distributor of audiovisual content.
They got to emit 300 channels
With all this information collected, the investigators proceeded to enter and register at the headquarters of the local operator, which at the time was broadcasting 78 channels, of which 20 were not authorized. The agents also verified that the operator was authorized to broadcast certain channels, but it took advantage of this circumstance and all its infrastructure to offer a broader list to its customers, including channels for which it did not have authorization. After analyzing the documentation found in greater detail, it was found that it was a dynamic list, which depending on the moment could be more extensive since they even broadcast 300 channels.
Its modus operandi consisted of capturing the signal through a legal contract with the provider as a private customer, to subsequently illegally distribute it to its customers. In this way, they provided service to some 1,300 clients in Beniaján (Murcia) and neighboring towns, taking advantage of the installed coaxial cable, which they charged by paying in cash on site or by bank transfer. This dynamic had been developing for 3 years, which had caused economic damage amounting to 715,000 euros per year.
