World Cup trap nets cable TV fiddlers

Hundreds of fraudsters in Cork have been nabbed in an ingenious 'sting' operation targeting three human weaknesses: greed, cable television, and the World Cup.

For two years Cork Communications, a cable television supplier to 30,000 homes, has been plagued by revenue-sapping fiddles. Former subscribers were getting their 'black box' cable decoders tampered with to let them watch pay- only channels for free.

An illicit black-box black market appeared, supplied by a wave of house burglaries. 'Hot' decoders were sold at about Ir pounds 60 a time. The result was 4,500 miscreants defrauding the firm of an annual Ir pounds 750,000.

The solution had echoes of an FBI sting where US crooks were lured with congratulations on winning a non-existent competition, only to be arrested on arriving to collect their 'winnings'.

Cork Communications' solution blended hi-tech ingenuity with an unerring sense of the one passion guaranteed to unite criminal classes.

A continuous message was broadcast which could be received only by decoders on which the scrambler system had been illegally bypassed. 'To mark Ireland's first ever May Day bank holiday, YFBT Promotions is offering an Irish World Cup T-shirt absolutely free,' it promised, giving a freephone number.

Some 2,000 replies were taped. Weeding out those who had heard about the offer, gardai focused on former subscribers among the earliest callers. Last Monday Cork District Court granted 416 search warrants.

The next 48 hours saw a blitz of raids and an initial 150 people face charges and possible imprisonment.

Incidentally, three letters of the name YFBT Promotions stand for 'Your Box is Tampered'.