AI Streaming Scam Ends in Prison as DOJ Signals a Harder Line
AI Streaming Scam Ends in Prison as DOJ Signals a Harder Line
Michael Smith’s seven-year streaming scheme began in 2017, prosecutors said, when he used purchased email addresses and fraudulently obtained debit cards to create thousands of accounts across major music platforms. The accounts were not listeners: they were bots programmed to play music Smith claimed to own on repeat.
Smith then scaled the operation with AI-generated tracks, releasing material under names including “Callous Post” and “Calorie Screams.” By distributing automated plays across an enormous catalog rather than concentrating them on a few songs, he allegedly obscured the manipulation. Prosecutors said he sometimes ran as many as 10,000 bot accounts at once.
The numbers underscored the scale. In April 2023, Smith’s tracks logged 80.9 million fraudulent streams in a month, according to the Justice Department, compared with 9.3 million family-plan YouTube Music streams for Taylor Swift’s entire catalog. Authorities say the artificial traffic did more than deceive platforms: it drained shared royalty pools that should have gone to legitimate rights holders.
Smith was charged in 2024 and pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. On Tuesday, the 54-year-old North Carolina man received an 18-month prison sentence, two years of supervised release and an order to forfeit $8,091,843.64. The case was the Justice Department’s first criminal prosecution involving AI-assisted streaming fraud.
For prosecutors, the punishment is meant to set a precedent. U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said Smith replaced “consumers” with bots and “creativity” with fake songs, robbing genuine artists and their fans of millions in royalties. Smith’s lawyer, Noell Tin, offered a different emphasis: his client was “profoundly sorry,” would serve his punishment and was “committed to making amends.”
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