A new study of Irdeto, the global leader in digital security, was yet more proof that if a pirate charges a fee via credible payment systems, then its own credibility grows, and its business goes better. This means that the sustainable brands like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and others partially share the responsibility for the prosperity of illegal paid providers. They become part of the reputation they build up.
“Illegal streaming services are becoming more sophisticated, with attractive websites and advertising, secure payment means and money-back guarantees. It is often hard for users to be sure if they subscribe to a authorized or illegal service”, as stated by Mark Mulready, Vice-President of Iredo for Cybersecurity Services, in his article released on Irdeto website.
Pirate IPTV providers feel quite at home to openly charge fees for stolen content. This is due to credible brands providing financial services.
Irdeto studied 400 websites of pirate IPTV streaming providers and found out that 76% of them openly offer to pay for their services using Visa, Mastercard and PayPal platforms.
The results unveiled by Irdeto show that both Visa and Mastercard account for 21% of all payment methods on pirate websites. PayPal represents 9% of all payments, while 4% is associated with crypto currencies.
The logos of the above systems are also placed on authorized TV providers. That is what confuses users.
“Surely, it is time for the payment platforms to support authorized media platforms by conducting rigorous inspections and stopping support for pirate IPTV providers”, as pointed out by Mark Mulready.
And legitimate media brands can press on payment platforms by threatening to cut cooperation with them.
This is not the first public summon to payment systems to stop doing business with online swindlers. And it works, since increasing number of intellectual property rights violators are cut off from the top payment platforms at the copyright holders’ request.
