Operation iScam
Operation iScam is an organized attempt to increase the ranking of a certain podcast within the iTunes Store.
Original iScam
The first Operation iScam took place on June 6, 2008 at 6pm EDT (6/6 @ 6), soon after the debut of Scam School. Brian announced it on stage during a live Diggnation in Brooklyn, NY. He told people to follow him on Twitter and at a certain time gave the signal for people to subscribe to Scam School in iTunes. The rapid increase in subscriptions resulted in Scam School becoming listed as one of the most popular podcasts in its category in Apple's system. Once the podcast had achieved the high ranking, it stayed up there.
Second iScam
Operation iScam was conducted once again on June 18, 2009 at 6pm local time in an attempt to get Scam School to #1 overall. People were asked to subscribe to Scam School in iTunes on as many computers as they could. A BBLiveShow broadcast was held that night to track the results.
Other iScam
Another Operation iScam was attempted on April 7, 2010 at 8:00pm EDT when Patrick Delahanty attempted to get people to subscribe to the AnimeCons.com Podcast and The Chibi Project, just a few days after the Anime Boston 2010 convention. The OperationiScam.com domain was pointed to Patrick's site while this iScam was in progress.
Patrick asked permission from Brian before using the name and redirecting the domain and received his blessing, but Brian himself was not involved with this attempt.
The event featured a 3 hour video broadcast from the AnimeCons.com studio starting at 7pm EDT hosted by Patrick, Sketch, and Doug from the AnimeCons.com Podcast. Although not as many people joined the live stream and chat as Brian has had during his Operation iScams, the night was a success. By the end of the night, The Chibi Project was ranked #14 in Comedy video podcasts, the AnimeCons.com Podcast was ranked #45 in News & Politics video podcasts, and the AnimeCons.com Extras podcast feed was ranked #13 in Performing Arts video podcasts.
Notes
The operationiscam.com was registered by Patrick Delahanty and originally pointed directly to Scam School in iTunes. It was later pointed at Brian's Operation iScam page before redirecting it to his own site in March 2010 in preparation for his own iScam attempt. Since then, it had been redirected to appropriate domains for DIAF, NSFW, and other shows.
The Operation iScam domain was allowed to expire in late 2013.