Set-top box fraud 'cost Virgin £144m a year'

A FRAUDSTER who sold 400,000 set-top boxes which could receive TV subscription channels for free cost Virgin Media £144million a year, a court heard yesterday.

Munaf Zinga, 41, set up Rayyonics Ltd in 2005 to sell Eurovox devices for £100.

Mukundan Pillai, 42, was the technical expert and Salim Patel, 47, the delivery driver, Snaresbrook crown court in London was told.

Zinga, of Plaistow, East London, and Pillai, of ­Hainault, Essex, got eight and six years in jail respectively after being found guilty of conspiracy to defraud.

Patel, of Plaistow, admitted the same charge and was sentenced to a year.

The judge called the scheme “audacious”.

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-st...in-144m-a-year-115875-23274290/#ixzz1SJrM1JVi

 

never got called 'audacious'. guess i just need to sell another 399,999 boxes.

 

i think the judge has got the wrong fraudster and his use of the word audacious reflects
poorly on his judgement skills.
sky,virgin etc.are the ones that should be held accountable for the rip off tactics they
employ.their charges for basic fta services are audacious and the judge would be better
off looking at those that rip off the public rather than those who pick up certain
critical freqs.and view them free.

 

, but those who use the boxs are stealing, the guys who got pinched were stealing, they knew the end result if caught, regardless of the cost for which VM charge for their product, they have to pay for the chans which appear on their platform, such as sly etc, cable CS / payservers are no difference to someone shoplifting or stealing money from a till, still stealing, same on Sat, if someone uses a CS payserver they are getting services for which they havent paid the supplier for, simple as, Just cause its TV and not actually robbing a shop or lifting a wallet, its stealing, some folks seem to blur the line, when it comes to using boxs

Yes the cost they charge are high, same with Sky, but they are there to make a profit, not to give it away, which on the flip side, as long as the charges are high, there will always be some sort of piracy, catch 22 really,

This game has moved on in the last few years due to N3, yes there are boxs working using the CS method, but aint the same gig as it was 4 years ago...... got to commercial and killed itself,

 

if one wants to broadcast something secure one doesnt use the airwaves-you use cable or fibre.i am entitled to access the airwaves free of charge and like some one speaking loudly im entitled to hear what is being said,despite they wanting it to be confidential.my ears decode messages sent via airwaves without fear of prosecution-why should my box be treated differently?

 

Your way of the mark,

FTA - Free to Air which everyone gets, difference to what the cable / sat boxs are doing, Thats piracy, your hacking into their network to view programes illegally, without paying for them with a vendor, they have enabled encryption to block you or I viewing without paying for it, think your confusing the issue, your not entitled to view any programmes that are encrypted, your are entitled to view those which are not,

VM own the cable network in the UK, they are entitled to encrypt what they want, no law against it, its their product and they are entitled to do this and protect it, same as Sky, they own the platform, they own whats broadcast on it, same as a shopkeeper stopping shoplifting or your next door neighbour putting an alarm on his car to prevent it being robbed, if someone stole from you would you be saying, ah, the window was open, its grand, no you wouldnt, but yet its the same thing, its taking something that doesnt belong to you nor have you paid for it nor are you entitled to it

So comparing what your ears pick up to encrypted programmes is way off the point, I suggest you read up on intellectual property, encryption and programme rights and ownership,

Like I said just playing devils advocate here and I agree their charges are off the mark and need to be reviewed

 

Prices are not high because of piracy. Alot of people I know that had cable in Eire before with the SV cable boxes have all moved to sat now but even that nearly all of them have never heard of CS. Its totally new to them, so to say piracy is the reason prices are high is wrong. Also, its also wrong to say the profits are hihg for hugh profit margins. The real reason why prices are high is because of the content such as sport, US tv, movies etc etc.
Look at the ridiculous wages all the footballers are paid, football managers are paid, rugby players are paid, actors are paid for movies and series. There is no way ticket sales from fans, merchandising, advertising can continually pay the 150,000 pounds 'A WEEK' these guys are getting and thats where the hugh TV revenue comes in. If these peoples wages/salaries were not so high then the price would be way cheaper than what it is now. Thats my opinon. But then again, all these provide great entertainment...the old saying of you pay peanuts, you get monkeys applies.

 

Never said high prices caused piracy, But it aint helping the cause for suppliers to be charging through the nose for it either, they need to be competitive in this the digital age, there are always people who want everything for nothing, the cost of cable in Ireland is higher than the UK for what we get, UK get a better selection of chans than Ireland do on a cable platform, but yet we get charged the higher amount, like anything else in Ireland, what I am saying is that, the costs of packages are high for soccer etc added to a basic plan, in Ireland its approx 30 euros just for sports per month, so for a basic pack + sports is about 60 euros per month, depending if your a new customer or old customer, but what camile is suggesting is way off the mark and not realistic at all,

 

well sly and vermin are rip off merchants who have stole the sports that use to be on terrestrial tv with their outragious bids for the sports to keep it to themselves. GOOD ON ANYONE THAT RIPS THEM OFF AS THEY RIP US OFF WITH THEIR PRICES!!!!! AND LOOK AT THE OWNERS OF BSKYB BIGGER (LEGALISED) CROOKS THAN ALL OF US PUT TOGETHER!

 

sb18180, well said, couldnt agree more.

 

Good on you sb18180-you have hit the nail on head and summed up the situation well.
As they say-its the rich that get the pleasure and the poor get the blame.
Me thinks Mickahs contribution is no devils advocate part-more a Sly promotion.

 

I agree totally, they need to review their pricing, but as its stands, they are the main suppliers to the UK and Irish markets for cable and sat, UPC in Ireland is the same, except they charge more for less of a service, for example, a number of months back, they removed all the Itv chans from the UPC network, why? programming is overspilling into Irish terrestrial chans........Horse shit (ITV own part of tv3, 3e, so whats the effin issue) they didnt want to pay them, thats why, ITV chans are FTA on sat in UK and Ireland, thats about 5 or more chans gone from UPC in the last while, have UPC replaced the chans or reduced the cost? Nope...

The UK get about 100 chans, more or less than the Irish market, but yet pay less, Irish cable punters are being fleeced, The chans on the UPC network are, well shite to be honest, the majority are FTA on sat and terrestial anwyays, so in fact, cable users are paying for a few more like Discovery etc etc, this is what happens when the market is run by two dominant players, the punter is the victim.

 

If you care to read what I answered you with, you will see I am right, I played devils advocate and clearly stated stealing is stealing, yet another one who cant seem to get their head around a proper debate when its put to you,considering you offered up hearing something as an answer, you couldnt even refute what I put to you, but jump on someone elses post.

Secondly, promote Sky? get a grip you fool, anyone who knows me on here or anywhere knows I dont promote sly, vm or UPC, So, by your reckoning, I am on a cable forum the last 4 years to help others fix boxs to use cable or sat without paying for it, but I promote Sky, now go back read my argument I put to you, if you dont see it, I suggest you dont make silly childish posts and revert to insinuating others on here.......

 

temper,temper now mickah-your loosing it.
me thinks mickah does protest to much.
resorting to name calling shows your true character and
certainly not one to have a debate with.
bythe way who knows you-who is this anyone?-who are you?

 

for heavens sake, the point has been made. footballers get paid a fortune, clubs have huge bills, tv rights are therefore huge money and bottom line the punter pays. so the fault is not vm, sky, ntl or any of the tv providers. its the stupid money being paid by the clubs. so then how is this corrected. great thing about modern day is the competition for tv rights. sadly this has gone haywire as tv providers gang up to buy the epl (english premier league) rights.

but reality is that the punter has the last say. he/she pays the monthly sports package bill and decides if it is too much. if more and more folk pull their subscription then less tv providers will have an interest in the epl rights and then players will get paid less as the whole game becomes less lucrative.

so yes greed is everywhere but only because the punter is willing to have it that way. i think the current financial meltdown will work its way through the system and it will self-correct

 

lets hope so and agreed more should stop subbing to vermin and sly prices would soon fall.

 

Loosing which? I made a valid point, what have you made? because I can hear something bla de bla.....your right, you cant debate with that type of reason, Yet you cant come back with anything I have said above, for or against....... Perhaps there are a few more threads you may troll on

 

you have made no valid points mickah,only to confirm that i have summed you up
for what you are, a bully and a name caller.
where are all that know you ,who has contributed for the last four years helping others,
now when you need them to back you up as a person of repute.
as regards your arguments-they are like yourself,silly,stupid and without foundation.
e.g.stating that a car alarm prevents it being robbed-is rediculous

 

stating stealing is stealing is the language of a simpleton
there is e.g. stealing by the little people who go to jail for it and the stealing
by the big people who prosper by it.

 

well as you can see by the top post they where the big guys not little fish that have been sent to prison, and this is not the end of it Starview people are the next for the chop their court case will be up soon as well, and they will also get prison as the president has now been set for this.

As for stealing what would you call it if you are helping yourself to the encrypted channels from your provider ..... legit, or just helping yourself, its just the same as you going into a shop and helping yourself to the goods off the shelves and walking out the door, its classed as stealing, if you go to court what are you charged with ?? borrowing i very much doubt it.

You are now nit picking at words m8 tbh, and what mickhab has given here to people over the years, and for free, i defo dont see any of your posts on here helping people, i suppose you are one of these people come on look take and dont give back, there are a lot of them about, but will come on and criticize others for helping, crawl back to your loft.