Eight jailed in £750,000 iTunes fraud

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Eight men have been locked up for their involvement in an iTunes gift certificate scam, in which details of 7,000 bankcards were used.

The crooks fraudulently purchased the iTunes music gift certificates, spending more than £750,000 of other people’s money in the process. They came up with a cunning plan to sell the vouchers on at a reduced price via eBay and other online market places, in order to launder cash from the cards.

“Criminal activity is not tolerated on our site and we will continue to work alongside law enforcement agencies to ensure that anyone who attempts to commit fraudulent activity on eBay won't get away with it," an eBay spokesperson said in a statement.

Detective Inspector Neal Colburn, of the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) Economic Crime Unit, explained that the police now have to confiscate the criminal proceeds from the defendants.

In a statement, Colburn added: “This was a complex fraud on a large scale. The group thought they had a sophisticated scam to launder money, but the pro-active intervention of the police got in their way.”

Earlier this year, the GMP was on the wrong end of criminal activity, when it was discovered that the Conficker worm had infiltrated machines owned by the authority.

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