Dutch police raids store for illegal TV receivers

The Dutch police have taken action against the illegal viewing of TV channels, TotaalTV reported. A raid took place in a store in Enschede where manipulated TV receivers were getting sold. People could use them to watch Ziggo channels without payment, for example. The company also provided illegal TV viewing via satellite, such as for Canal Digitaal, TV Vlaanderen, Sky UK and Sky Deutschland content.

The fraud took place via a so-called card sharing technique. Here, a subscription is purchased legally from a provider via the internet and then shared through a server with many people. The company in Enschede is suspected of not only selling the manipulated receivers, but also providing customers with access to such a server for a fee.

Illegal viewing costs TV providers worldwide tens of millions of euros in revenues per year. The pursuit of this kind of crime has been getting a higher priority over the past months. In addition to TV fraud via card sharing, the sale of illegal IPTV subscriptions is also getting attention.