The site hosts millions of public domain and Creative Commons licensed files, many of which can be downloaded through BitTorrent. In recent weeks, however, the Internet Archive has been flooded with more dubious content.

Searching the site for the titles of Hollywood blockbusters now results in long lists of seemingly pirated movies. With names such as “World War Z 2013 DVDRip Xvid AQAS” and “The World’s End full movie part 1 Xvid” it is safe to say the files in question are not in the public domain.

However, on closer inspection it turns out that these titles are not being uploaded by pirates who want to spread free movies, but by scammers trying to earn hard cash through the Internet Archive.

Those who try to download or stream the movies in question will soon notice that it’s not as straightforward as it looks. The “scam” uploads come in different shapes. Some have actually uploaded what looks like a movie file, but one that requires a special software such as the MKPlayer illustrated in the image below.

Needless to say, this is just a money-making scheme designed to lure people into downloading suspicious software.

Another trick scammers use is the YouTube video screenshot.

The page pictured below suggests that you can stream the film Epic directly from the Internet Archive, but those who click play will notice that it’s just an image which points to an external streaming site.

Whether the third-party sites do indeed stream these movies is unknown, but they do ask for the credit card details of those who are gutsy enough to give it a try.

Several movie links point to the same page at Cinemablast.info with fake user comments. When the “film” starts playing a notice pops up saying that the film was approved for all audiences by the non-existing Independent Film Rating Association of America, instead of the MPAA. After this notice visitors are redirected to the pay site.

While these type of scams are nothing new for the average BitTorrent search engine, this is the first time we’ve seen them abuse the Internet Archive.

One of the factors that may explain the increase in interest is the fact that the Internet Archive added BitTorrent downloads last summer. After this announcement several torrent search engines started indexing the site, which makes the scam torrents spread to other sites as well.

Unlike well moderated torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay, the Internet Archive has yet to find a good way to keep the scammers at bay. TorrentFreak asked the Internet Archive for a response to our findings, but we have yet to hear back.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Disguised as copyright trolls, the unregistered outfit is targeting file-sharers across the United States with copyright infringement claims and threats of criminal prosecution.

Victims of the scheme receive a letter in which they are notified about alleged copyright infringements that took place through their Internet connection. The letter is sent to their home address and lists an IP-address and the files that were downloaded without permission.

“We work with law enforcement agencies and strategic partners around the world to enforce copyright laws, and to help prosecute individuals and companies who violate these laws,” the group introduces itself in the letter.

To escape civil and criminal prosecution the account holder is asked to settle the issue for $495, or else. Others report slightly lower claims but the threats are the same. Pay up now or you might face criminal action and millions of dollars in fines.

“You may face serious potential criminal and/or civil charges filed against you. If you are arrested for felony criminal copyright infringement you will be fingerprinted, photographed, and held in jail until you are arraigned in court,” the letter reads.

“If you act promptly you will help avoid being named as a Defendant in a potential criminal and/or civil lawsuit that can result in a felony criminal conviction causing imprisonment, and/or fines of up to several million dollars,” it adds.

The company suggests that it works with law enforcement and represents a wide variety of copyright holders, including popular artists such as Skrillex and Cee Lo Green, but it appears that the company is just acting on its own.

According to information obtained by SJD the accusations are not made up. This means that the IP-addresses were indeed “caught” sharing the files listed in the letter. However, it is a mystery how the “Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency” obtained the home addresses of the subscribers.

Regular copyright trolls get the subscriber information through a subpoena they obtain from court, but there is no sign of any legal action tied to these claims.

This leads us to worrying possibility that the “Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency” may have contacts working at one or more Internet Providers. These would be able to look up the addresses of the account holders in question, bypassing the legal system.

As can be seen from the image below the company urges their victims to send money to a virtual office in Washington. However, the company itself doesn’t appear to be registered under the name it’s using.

Although the scale of the scam is unclear, several letter recipients have posted messages on the Internet in recent days. While some people appear to recognize it as a scam, there are probably many more who didn’t, and paid up.

As it turns out, however, all signs indicate that the “Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency” are the criminals here, possible facing several years jailtime for fraud, extortion and racketeering. That is, if they are caught and convicted.

Interestingly enough, the public attention seems to have frightened them, as a few hours ago they suddenly claimed to have ceased their operations.

“Effective immediately, the Internet Copyright Law Enforcement Agency has ceased operations. Please disregard any notices you received from us, and please do not send us any payments,” a message on their website reads.

While this is good news for the people who still have to pay up, the persons behind the scheme shouldn’t be able to get away with this so easily. We encourage everyone who received a letter to contact the police and their Internet provider, urging them to look into the matter.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Some are displaying the amount of donations they have received and these seem sizable in some cases. Although there is no doubt that some generous supporters have already given to these funds, its likely the amounts of donations shown have been inflated to imply that this is the correct fund to donate to.

Fact: NONE of these sites are sanctioned or set up in collaboration with OiNK, so please, please, please – don’t give them your money! This has been confirmed by TorrentFreak directly with OiNK himself.

This means ALL sites claiming to try to raise funds for OiNK should be considered dubious. It’s entirely possible that some good natured individuals are trying to genuinely raise money but it’s impossible to separate the scammers from the tiny minority of honest people.

There may not even be a fund in the end, this hasn’t been decided yet so in the meantime, please keep your money safe.

Potential donors are advised to wait until we make an announcement about the correct fund to donate to. We will do that here on TorrentFreak.

Stay tuned.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.