FACT goes door-to-door in the fight against illegal streaming

Throughout January, FACT and the police are visiting homes across the UK, serving notices to individuals to cease illegal streaming activities with immediate effect and informing users of the associated risks, which include criminal prosecution.

Over 1,000 individuals have been identified following raids by West Mercia Police against a UK-based illegal streaming service that was supplying entertainment and sports content via modified boxes, firesticks, and subscriptions.

While criminal prosecution is pending against the operator of the illegal service, police are also reminding consumers that using illegal streaming services is not just a crime but one that is treated seriously by the courts. In 2021, two individuals, Paul Faulkner and Stephen Millington were sentenced to a total of 16 months in prison for watching unauthorised streams.

Users are also being advised of the many other risks associated with illegal streaming, including funding criminal organisations and exposing themselves to fraud, scams, inappropriate content, viruses, and malware.

Recent research, which analysed 50 popular illegal streaming sites, found that all contained malicious content, while over 40 per cent of them did not have a security certificate. 50 per cent of people who illegally stream in the UK say they or someone they know have been a victim of scams, ID theft, fraud or data loss as a result, and 41 per cent have been exposed to inappropriate content.

“We would like to thank the Government Agency Intelligence Network (GAIN), the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), West Mercia Police, and other police forces across the country, for their support to help ensure that the public are made aware of the dangers of using illegal streaming services and, more importantly, that they understand that there is the risk of criminal prosecution,” said FACT Chief Executive, Kieron Sharp.