Denmark’s NSK law enforcement agency filed charges against an individual who was selling lists containing a total of about 500,000 leaked login credentials for various online services, including several streaming services.
The man is also accused of having set up a sales function on a website where buyers could individually purchase an existing user’s login information for specific services, including TV2 Play, Viaplay, HBO Max, Paramont+ and Podimo.
Stolen login credentials as a business model
The Danish Rights Alliance (Rettigheds Alliancen) has observed a trend where criminals use unsuspecting users’ login information to gain a share of the attractive streaming market. Personal login credentials for entertainment services are in high demand as the demand for content is exploited by criminals, who thereby make the full profit themselves selling cheap subscriptions to existing users’ accounts on streaming services.
Rights Alliance reported several cases of hacking and the illegal resale of users’ login information in Denmark in recent months. In June, a 41-year-old man was sentenced to six months’ probation for, among other things, to have copied and shared Ekstra Bladet+ articles using other people’s passwords. In July, NSK arrested the third suspected mastermind behind an organized sale of unauthorized access information to streaming and news services.
Further reading
Charged with reselling 500,000 leaked login credentials. Press release. September 22, 2023. National Unit for Serious Crime (NSK), Denmark – Auto-translated from Danish to English by Google Translate.
Charged with reselling 500,000 leaked login credentials to streaming services. News release. September 26, 2023. Rettigshed Alliancen (Danish Rights Alliance) – Auto-translated from Danish to English by Google Translate.
Why it matters
“Illegal resale of users’ private login information for streaming services occurs on a large scale and affects both the vulnerable users, streaming services and rights holders,” said Maria Fredenslund, Director of the Rights Alliance. “Cases like this help to make visible that criminals are constantly developing new models to illegally make content available for their own profit – regardless of the fact that their crime goes beyond unsuspecting people,” she said.
