The operation against Cinemagoal has dismantled a network that offered football and new releases for 40 euros a year. They used fake subscriptions and cryptocurrencies to operate. Now, Italian authorities have identified the buyers and are imposing financial penalties on them. The myth of anonymity in piracy has vanished forever.
How the technical scam behind Cinemagoal worked 🛠️
The network used intermediary servers that connected to legal platforms using stolen credentials. Users paid with cryptocurrencies to avoid bank tracking, but digital payments left a trace on the blockchain. Authorities tracked the transactions and cross-referenced the data with client IPs. The system, far from being anonymous, turned out to be a data trap for buyers.
You paid 40 euros for pirated football and now you have to pay 5,000 💸
Those 40 euros you saved to watch the game without paying the legal fee are going to cost you 5,000. No joke. Fines range from 154 euros for the occasional user to 5,000 for those who watched TV as if they were channel shareholders. Next time someone offers you a cheap IPTV, remember that cheap turns out expensive, and in this case, with interest.