An order was granted by Mr Justice Brian Cregan that Revolut Bank \u2014 the provider of accounts from which end users sent money to dodgy box resellers \u2014 must provide details of 304 subscribers as well as details of 10 resellers.<\/p>\n
However, even with the crackdown happening across the nation, Barry said he would rather pay \u20ac150 a year for a dodgy box than spend the same amount per month to watch the latest shows and movies, as well as football, GAA, rugby, and practically any other sport across the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does not make sense to pay that much money, especially when the costs of everything are going up,\u201d he told the Irish Examiner.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cinema is really expensive nowadays. If you\u2019re going for two people, let’s say popcorn and tickets, that\u2019s \u20ac40, and that\u2019s not really feasible, especially if you want to go once a week. And even with like an Omni plex pass, which would be for two or three films a month, there would sometimes not be anything worth it on in the cinema.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt least with the dodgy box, you have the liberty of choosing what you want, of everything, like for example pay-per-view TV, it\u2019s all there. People pay to watch those UFC fights, for example, but with the box, I just turn it on, and it’s there,\u201d Barry added.<\/p>\n
The Cork man said having a box makes life \u201ca lot more easier, more affordable, and more practical”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to go full above board, go and pay for everything, but it\u2019s just not feasible. Everyone I know has one, and I spread the word as well,\u201d Barry added.<\/p>\n
\u201cStreaming services have taken on a massive monopoly, and because they are all competing with each other, they are all increasing their prices and therefore making it unaffordable for everyone to continue paying for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are just too many streaming platforms to watch different shows that I would be interested in, and instead, at least with the box, I find my favourite series, all in one place and I don\u2019t have to worry about paying for a subscription to get the 10 episodes that have just dropped, or watch one episode per week as it drops, it\u2019s all there,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Barry explained how simple it was to get a dodgy box from a seller.<\/p>\n
\n If I wanted a dodgy box, I just need to know someone who knows someone who knows someone. That\u2019s how it worked for me.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then, if I do get in contact with this person, I\u2019ll meet them at usually a car park and then I\u2019ll give him the money and then you get your thing, and then I\u2019ll take it home and plug it in and set it up and then they text me an email, you sign into it and that\u2019s it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I have an expiry for the subscription, so when that date comes along, I\u2019ll get a code, and I just text it and get a new one,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
A number of home devices, including dodgy boxes, were compromised in February following a large-scale global cyberattack.<\/p>\n
Grant Thornton said the attack was launched by a botnet called Kimwolf, which is made up of mainly “compromised Android-enabled televisions and TV streaming devices”.<\/p>\n
When asked if these cyber attacks would cause any concern, Barry said he wasn\u2019t afraid of his personal data being out there as \u201cwe are always online and our information is out there”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ekco Security president Pat Larkin said the \u201cimpact of a compromised home network is potentially very significant to your family and your work”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Every device that you use, whether on a corporate network or a home network, needs to be appropriately secured,\u201d Mr Larkin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of that security is knowing the provenance of the device \u2014 does it come from a trusted, reputable source, who has your best interests at heart?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next issue is, can you keep it appropriately secured from being compromised to be used against you, your family or other organisations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“This usually means only using a minimum set of known software and apps, keeping it secured from unauthorised access with passwords and multi-factor authentication, keeping it patched, appropriately deploying it on the correct part of your home network, etc.<\/p>\n
\u201cHome networks are used to process personal family information, online banking and usually service personal and work devices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe impact of a compromised home network is potentially very significant to your family and your work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Dodgy boxes, by their nature, usually fail most or all of these basic security tenets. Ekco’s advice is do not use,\u201d Mr Larkin added.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Cathal (not his real name) said he\u2019d rather stream on piracy sites than pay for streaming subscriptions.<\/p>\n
\u201cNetflix has gone really shit, like the standard is poor. The standard is also really poor on Prime. And then all those movies and TV shows I want to watch, you have to pay to rent them on a subscription that you are already paying for, it makes no sense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re getting double-charged, you\u2019re getting charged for things that aren\u2019t even brand new.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love to go to the cinema to watch movies, but I also love to watch them on my laptop at home in bed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“And I\u2019m not going to pay \u20ac3.99 just so I can fall asleep watching a movie when I can easily just go on a dodgy website and kind of go: There\u2019s a few ads here, a few ads there, I\u2019ll just click off and get it for free.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about it being free, it\u2019s about like the point of why am I paying for a rental of something I\u2019m already subscribing to?\u201d Cathal added.<\/p>\n
The Cork man said he uses a VPN to protect his laptop or phone whenever he uses those websites and that he isn\u2019t afraid of losing his personal data as \u201cwe already give our data to the likes of Facebook, Instagram and everything\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know they are selling our data to whoever they want, so it\u2019s not black and white for me; they are all the same. Your data is going to be used anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you just pay nothing, you get everything you want, and you just run the risk of losing your data,\u201d Cathal added.<\/p>\n
![\"'I](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/5019896_5_articleinline_6ced6384-4be5-44e3-904d-23dfa85fb61b.jpg.jpg\" "\\"'I")
‘I know people who get Netflix and Prime on their phone bill, and I\u2019m like, that\u2019s cool, but what are you paying for, and why are you paying more?’<\/p>\n
He claimed new TV packages being offered just increase people\u2019s bills and costs. \u201cI know people who get Netflix and Prime on their phone bill, and I\u2019m like, that\u2019s cool, but what are you paying for, and why are you paying more?<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you paying that subscription on your phone or to Sky to just get the accessibility to Netflix, or are they just throwing it at you? For numbers, for drive. For things that don\u2019t even matter to us, but matter to them. Like viewership.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m sure if Netflix and Prime and all these streaming sites go below a certain viewership, they’re in the shit,\u201d Cathal added.<\/p>\n
Cathal said we have \u201cbecome lazy\u201d and are looking for \u201cthe quick fix”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are willing to pay just for those two or three seconds of difference that you would get if you weren\u2019t using a piracy website, which would be full of ads,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Sky said: \u201cIllegal streaming puts consumers at real risk of online harms, including fraud and identity theft.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is often unreliable and can expose devices and personal data to further risk, while also draining vital investment away from the creative industries behind the shows and sports people love,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe encourage people to enjoy their favourite content safely and legally, with the appropriate subscription.<\/p>\n
“At Sky, we are always looking for ways to make things easier and to offer more choice for our customers. That\u2019s why we are proud to offer, in a world\u2011first, Sky TV, HBO Max, Disney+, Hayu, and Netflix together as part of the Sky Ultimate TV package.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis gives customers easy access to over \u20ac30 worth of streaming apps included each month. For new customers, this represents unbeatable value at just \u20ac28 a month, and existing Sky customers get all these streaming apps at no additional cost to their subscription,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou basically need to know someone who knows someone to get a dodgy box. And then you just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,2190,157568,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-406994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-cost-of-living","tag-dodgy-boxes","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116301976662838827","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}