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They tried to defraud Big Tech. It didn't go well
They were scammers. But they weren't going to scam just anyone. They were going to scam Big Tech. And they almost got away with it.
Earlier this month, federal prosecutors accused a North Carolina man of stealing royalty payments from music streaming platforms for seven years. He allegedly used artificial intelligence to create songs by fake bands and then play those songs to get paid.
The incident resembles a scheme between 2013 and 2015 when a Lithuanian man bilked Google and Facebook out of more than $100 million before getting caught.
Endless Thread's Ben Brock Johnson and Dean Russell bring two stories of grifts gone wrong.
*****
Credits: This episode was produced and co-hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Dean Russell. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski. It was edited by our managing producer, Samata Joshi.
***
Survey alert: Tell us what you love about the show, what you want more of; what you could stand a little less of. And if you complete the survey, we'll send you an extra episode (what Ben's calling a "dashboard confessional") in January.
Take the survey here: wbur.org/endlessthreadsurvey
Thank you!
View all episodes
By WBUR
4.1
26162,616 ratings
They were scammers. But they weren't going to scam just anyone. They were going to scam Big Tech. And they almost got away with it.
Earlier this month, federal prosecutors accused a North Carolina man of stealing royalty payments from music streaming platforms for seven years. He allegedly used artificial intelligence to create songs by fake bands and then play those songs to get paid.
The incident resembles a scheme between 2013 and 2015 when a Lithuanian man bilked Google and Facebook out of more than $100 million before getting caught.
Endless Thread's Ben Brock Johnson and Dean Russell bring two stories of grifts gone wrong.
*****
Credits: This episode was produced and co-hosted by Ben Brock Johnson and Dean Russell. Mix and sound design by Emily Jankowski. It was edited by our managing producer, Samata Joshi.
***
Survey alert: Tell us what you love about the show, what you want more of; what you could stand a little less of. And if you complete the survey, we'll send you an extra episode (what Ben's calling a "dashboard confessional") in January.
Take the survey here: wbur.org/endlessthreadsurvey
Thank you!
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