alt Hacker NewsThe fraudulent debit cards are definitely criminal.
Using bots to automate listening to his own songs was likely fraudulent too because he was being awarded royalties. If his songs had been monetized in some other way I'm not sure what he did would be fraud.
I don't think creating multiple accounts is, even if it's in violation of the TOS.
If that was the case, anyone who signs up for multiple accounts on a website/app to get multiple coupons/bonuses/etc... would be committing fraud.
None of this is close to firing a gun pointed at someone's head.
They very clearly made an example of him given the sentencing, but I don't think they were confident about all the charges in the indictment based on the plea agreement and the crazy high succuss rates in federal criminal cases.
Replies
> If that was the case, anyone who signs up for multiple accounts on a website/app to get multiple coupons/bonuses/etc... would be committing fraud.
That seems to me like it would be easy to prove it is fraud in a US court.
I don’t think fraud requires enrichment, does it? I know we commonly associate the two but it’s somewhat of an annoyance IMO that we only care about scheming material misrepresentation when it involve money.
Edit: interesting it does look like there must be an object of the fraud, likely to prevent the law from being used broadly to punish lying.