They tried to defraud Big Tech. It didn't go well

25:56

September 27, 2024

Ben Brock Johnson
Dean Russell

Lithuanian Evaldas Rimasauskas in district court in Vilnius charged after allegedly sending phishing emails to representatives of major tech firms and pretending to work for Asian company. (Petras Malukas/AFP via Getty Images)

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.

Show notes:

"The Bands and the Fans Were Fake. The $10 Million Was Real." (The New York Times)
"Man Pleads Guilty To Phishing Scheme That Fleeced Facebook, Google Of $100 Million" (NPR)