Credit card thief 'steals' own music on iTunes

, was actually part of a 12-member gang who organized the scam and downloaded about 6,000 songs from 2008-2009, stealing about $750,000. Johnson told a London court he was responsible for about 2,000 of the downloads, according to the BBC.

The scam took advantage of one time-tested credit card thief method -- many consumers don't notice small unauthorized charges on their bills, so it's much easier to steal $1 10,000 times than $10,000 one time. That's even more true at iTunes, where it's common for users to incur a string of small charges on their bills.

On the other hand, the trick is always in the delivery. When Johnson and his cohorts tried to access funds sent to them by Amazon and iTunes, they would have been easily found.

No word on the quality of the 20 songs that were uploaded, or whether anyone else bought the music.

Catch Bob Sullivan most Tuesdays and Fridays in his Red Tape Chronicles column, connect with him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter at @RedTapeChron.

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