Warning Emails Hit Illegal Firestick IPTV Users Across UK

If you’ve been using illegal IPTV streaming services on your Fire TV stick, you might want to check your inbox – because you could be getting squeezed from two directions at once.

FACT, the UK’s leading anti-piracy organisation, has recently contacted over 1,000 people across the country via email and text message, warning them to immediately stop using illegal streaming services or face potential prosecution.

And this isn’t happening in isolation. At the same time, Amazon has been systematically blocking illegal IPTV apps across all Fire TV devices in partnership with Hollywood’s anti-piracy coalition – creating what amounts to a coordinated assault on illegal streaming from both the legal and technical sides.

The message from FACT is blunt: you’re not anonymous, they know who you are, and watching unauthorised content carries serious risks – including potential criminal charges.

The Warning Campaign: How FACT Got Your Details

FACT’s campaign builds on investigations carried out with police forces nationwide, and the organisation has been very clear about where they got the contact details for the people they’re warning.

During investigations into Jonathan Edge’s Liverpool IPTV operation and another illegal streaming service (currently subject to a pending criminal prosecution), law enforcement seized customer databases.

 

Those databases contained details of people who had purchased access to so-called “loaded” or “jailbroken” Firesticks, Android boxes, or Kodi devices. And now those customers are being contacted directly.

The emails and text messages warn recipients that accessing illegal TV streaming services could make them liable to prosecution under Section 11 of the Fraud Act 2006 – the same law used to jail sellers of these services.

Kieron Sharp, FACT’s chairman, didn’t mince words: “This campaign makes it clear that end users of illegal streaming services are breaking the law.

“The risks are real, from potential criminal liability to exposure to scams, viruses, and harmful content. We urge people to protect themselves and their families by only using legitimate providers.”

The Jonathan Edge Precedent: Users Can Go To Prison Too

The Edge case is particularly significant because it established that users of illegal IPTV services can face prison time, not just sellers.

Edge, 29, from Liverpool, was sentenced to three years and four months in prison for running an illegal Firestick modification operation from his home. He’d been charging £30 per modified Firestick and made at least £15,000 from the scheme.

But here’s what makes his case a watershed moment: Edge received a separate concurrent sentence of two years and three months specifically for watching the illegal streams himself.

His own use of the unauthorised service was treated as a distinct crime – showing that end users, not just suppliers, can face criminal prosecution for illegal streaming.

When police raided Edge’s home, they seized his mobile phone and discovered details of over 500 customers who had purchased illegal streaming devices from him.

Those 500 people are now part of the group receiving warning messages from FACT.

Detective Sergeant Adam Dagnall of Merseyside Police’s Cybercrime Unit made it clear this isn’t just about copyright infringement: “Merseyside Police takes illegal streaming seriously because it often helps fund organised crime and puts users at real risk.

“Not only is it a criminal offence, but the unauthorised streaming services frequently contain malware that can compromise personal devices and lead to the loss of information such as banking details, or be used to commit identity fraud.”

Amazon’s Simultaneous Crackdown: Blocking Apps And Pushing Vega OS

Whilst FACT has been sending out warning emails, Amazon has been taking action against illegal IPTV on the technical side over the past few months.

Back in October, Amazon launched the Fire TV Stick 4K Select – the first streaming stick to run on the company’s brand new Vega operating system rather than Android.

The key difference? Vega OS doesn’t support sideloading at all. You can only install apps from the Amazon Appstore – full stop.

There’s no developer mode workaround for everyday use, no option to enable installation from unknown sources.

For illegal IPTV operations that have relied on sideloaded Android apps for years, the Select (see my review) represents a complete technical roadblock.

Then, just weeks later in late October, Amazon announced they were partnering with the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) to systematically block illegal IPTV apps across ALL Fire TV devices – including the Android-based models that still allow sideloading.

An Amazon spokesperson told us at the time: “Through an expanded program led by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), a global coalition fighting digital piracy, we’ll now block apps identified as providing access to pirated content, including those downloaded from outside our Appstore.”

ACE is a coalition of over 50 major entertainment companies – Amazon, Apple TV, BBC Studios, Disney, Netflix, Sky, the Premier League, Warner Bros – all working together to fight streaming piracy.

They maintain detailed databases of illegal streaming apps and services, and they’re now sharing that intelligence directly with Amazon.

The result? If you’ve got a dodgy IPTV app installed on your Fire TV device, there’s a good chance it’s going to stop working at some point.

It’s worth noting that, based on my own checks, the full-scale rollout of Amazon’s app blocking doesn’t appear to be at maximum intensity in the UK yet, or it’s rolling out gradually.

But the technical infrastructure is clearly in place (as witnessed in other countries), and the direction of travel is unmistakable.

Meanwhile, Amazon is still heavily discounting the Select – it remains at just £19.99 through December 31, down from its £49.99 launch price. That’s a 60% discount on a device that only launched two months ago.

Amazon is practically giving away streaming sticks that can’t run illegal IPTV apps. The company clearly wants as many of these non-sideloadable devices in homes as possible.

The Pressure From Sky And The Premier League

To understand why Amazon is taking such aggressive action, you need to understand the pressure the company has been under from broadcasters.

In February 2025, Sky launched a fierce public attack on Amazon, with chief operating officer Nick Herm claiming Fire TV Sticks accounted for “probably about half of the piracy” of Premier League football in the UK.

Sky claimed the situation had become so widespread that football fans at some grounds had started chanting “we’ve got our Fire Sticks” during matches. Some supporters were even wearing shirts with “Fire Sticks” printed on them.

Sky’s specific demand was that Amazon should “lock down or impose controls and restrictions on the use of side-loaded unofficial apps on the devices.”

For years, the Fire TV Stick’s reputation has been tarnished by the “dodgy Firestick” phenomenon – modified devices sold on Facebook Marketplace, loaded with illegal IPTV apps, often advertised as “fully loaded” or “jailbroken.”

That’s not the brand association Amazon wants for its flagship streaming device. The combination of Vega OS and systematic app blocking represents Amazon’s response to that pressure.

Recent Cases: The Enforcement Is Escalating

Edge’s case is far from isolated. UK authorities have been aggressively pursuing illegal IPTV operations, with sentences getting progressively harsher.

In July 2025, Stephen Woodward, 36, from Thirsk, was sentenced to three years and one month in prison for running three illegal IPTV operations that generated £1 million.

Police seized his Jaguar F-Type V8 coupe, designer clothes, jewellery, and froze £1.1 million in bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets.

Earlier this year, Birmingham resident Gary McNally received a 2-year 9-month sentence for his “Each Online” IPTV service, which operated on expensive business-grade broadband costing £420 monthly and distributed over 80,000 hours of pirated content.

And in December 2024, police and FACT investigators turned up at 30 homes across the UK in a coordinated sweep, targeting suspected sellers of modified Firesticks. Multiple arrests were made, with digital devices seized as evidence.

The pattern is clear: enforcement is escalating, sentences are getting longer, and the net is widening from large-scale operators to smaller sellers – and now to users themselves.

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