Industrious cheats from the US, Israel, Hong Kong and China have tried to rig DJmag's Top 100 DJ poll.
Investigating their annual poll, DJmag have discovered vote-rigging computer scripts, unscrupulous marketing managers and "over-enthusiastic family and friends" have soured their Top 100.The magazine admitted that they had been hoodwinked by DJs. US stars Christopher Lawrence and DJ Dan shared a marketing manager who supposedly used a script to bypass DJmag's security system, unbeknownst to them.
Chinese DJ Tiesmi paid the equivalent of £260 for a software engineer to generate 100,000 votes for him. Relatively unknown Hong Kong DJ Erick Junior inexplicably shot to third place within four days of voting.
Israeli DJ the Flash Brothers received 1300 votes from a single IP address, saying in a statement "It appears that some of our friends and family simply wanted to surprise us at all costs and help our cause." In last year's poll they were the "highest climber", moving up 43 places to number 23.
DJmag Editor Lesley Wright commented: "It's outrageous that DJs should attempt to cheat. It shows a blatant disregard for the Top 100 poll, for DJ Magazine and, most importantly, for their fellow DJs. Shame on them."
Comments on DJmag's message board claim that the vote rigging has been going on for years. Readers can compare the charts when the 2007 results are announced on October 24.
