Mystery Artists, Tracks Hacked Into Spotify Accounts To Generate Fake Streams
Mysterious artists and tracks are showing up again on Spotify and being hacked into user accounts and playlists, apparently to generate fake streams and undeserved income, according to a new BBC report.
Unknown artists with names including Bergenulo Five, Bratte Night, DJ Bruej and Doublin Night are showing up in the accounts of users that have never heard of the acts. Each artists has a few things in common: short songs with few or no lyrics, illustrated with generic cover art, and short, non-descriptive song titles, according to the BBC.
my spotify was hacked a couple months ago, so to whoever that was – your top sub genre was reggaton flow and your top artist was bergenulo five, my dude
— ᴹᶦˡˡᶦᵉ Robbie ᴮʳᵒʷⁿ (@robbiegirl) December 7, 2018
My @Spotify got hacked into this year, so I've no idea who DJ Echores or Bergenulo Five are… but "The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs" by @wyeoak is seriously special.
Highly recommended to all high jackers and account thieves everywhere. pic.twitter.com/mo9moUbSRl
— Graeme – FossilArcade (@FossilArcade) December 10, 2018
Reports of similar fake streams first surfaced in the Fall of last year.
Spotify has denied that there was a hack and declined a BBC request for contact details of the artists. All of the BBC's attempts to contact the bands directly failed, as well. But within a few days of reaching out, most of the mystery artists had disappeared from Spotify.
Some of the mystery artists who appeared, then disappeared on Spotify, according to the BBC:
- Bergenulo Five
- Onxyia
- Cappisko
- Hundra Ao
- Dj Bruej
- Doublin Night
- Bratte Night
- Funkena
