Make money online by buying your own music with stolen cards?

Nine people were arrested by the police in the UK for using stolen credit cards to buy music they made themselves from iTunes and Amazon, fraudulently netting around $300,000 in royalties. The gang was charged with creating several songs before using an online US company to upload them to Amazon and iTunes for sale.

According to the official data over the period of September 2008 and January 2009 the group used about 1500 stolen or cloned British and American credit cards to buy $750,000 worth of songs. Apple and Amazon, who at the time were unaware of the plot against them, paid royalties totaling $300,000 out on the sales.

In the course of a parallel investigation launched by the Metropolitan police's e-crime unit and the FBI, six men and three women were arrested this morning in raids across London and the Midlands. These individuals are being held on suspicion of conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering.