A sophisticated criminal who defrauded and stole the data of his victims in a banking scam called iSpoof has admitted the charges at Southwark Crown Court.
The Metropolitan Police successfully brought the spree of scams to an end, which stole £100 million in total from victims worldwide. This led police to issue text warnings to 70,000 people who may have had their information compromised.
Scamming techniques are becoming more sophisticated however offenders are also reverting back to using pre-pandemic social engineering methods to persuade people to part with their money and security information.
Traditional methods like false text messages and new methods have inflated a billion-dollar industry.
In this case, Tejay Fletcher admitted the charges of iSpoofing, which involved calling victims pretending to be an employee of a central bank such as Barclays, Santander, HSBC, Lloyds, Halifax, First Direct, NatWest, Nationwide or TSB.
The deception also could have hacked account passcodes to clear balances. The case was the UK police’s largest anti-fraud operation which Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley described as an “enormous endeavour” as 200,000 people in the UK alone may have been targeted by the scam.
The police’s breakthrough with tackling iSpoof attacks came when a website was identified in the Netherlands.
Tejay Fletcher awaits sentencing at Southwark Crown Court on May 18, 2023.
