Online fraud shop mastermind blew money into £230,000 Lamborghini, court said

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Tejay Fletcher, 35, was revealed as the founder and chief administrator of the iSpoof.cc website when it was squashed last year in the UK’s biggest scam operation.

The site offered scammers the tools to disguise phone calls to appear to be from a trusted organization, such as a bank, so they could empty the accounts of their targets.

Southwark Crown Court heard that victims around the world were swindled out of at least £100 million, including a minimum of £43 million from people in the UK.

Users of the website paid hundreds of thousands of pounds a month for its features, which were traded in a channel on the encrypted messaging app Telegram called the “iSpoof club.”

The website made around £3.2 million worth of Bitcoin cryptocurrency, with the “lion’s share” of around £2 million ending up with Fletcher, prosecutor John Ojakovoh said.

The court heard that he rented an east London apartment, which boasts views of the Royal Victoria Dock and the city skyline, and owned a £230,000 Lamborghini.

Fletcher also spent £120,000 on two Range Rovers for himself and his girlfriend, while police found a counter of money, jewelery and £11,000. Rolex in his house.

Ojakovoh said another Audemars Piguet watch appeared to be a fake, quipping, “You can’t trust anybody these days.”

Fletcher pleaded guilty last month to four counts, including manufacturing or furnishing an item for use in fraud, advancing or assisting in the commission of a crime, possession of criminal property and transfer of criminal property. , between November 30, 2020 and November 8, 2022.

“This is a case that concerns the facilitation of fraud on an industrial scale by the iSpoof website and its founder and principal administrator,” the prosecutor said at Fletcher’s sentencing hearing on Thursday.

Fletcher was arrested at his girlfriend’s house in east London in a global operation to take down iSpoof, as part of the UK’s largest fraud operation.

He metropolitan police It said iSpoof was created in December 2020 and at its peak had 59,000 users, with up to 20 people per minute directed at one point by callers using technology purchased from the site.

Its centerpiece allowed scammers to make phone calls that appeared to be from a trusted organization, such as a bank, and pose as employees of the fraud department to lower the guard of unsuspecting recipients.

The fake calls, along with other features offered through the site to obtain passwords and PIN codes, were used to drain the victims’ bank accounts.

Ojakovoh said a “particularly dastardly exploitation of people’s busy lives” was a tool that allowed users to trick victims into entering new card details by claiming that information held by a trusted organization was out of date.

One victim lost £3m, while the 4,785 people who reported being targeted by Action Fraud lost an average of £10,000, according to police.

The court heard that Fletcher conducted “market research”, promoted new products and encouraged users to commit fraud.

On January 3, 2022, he wished users “Happy New Year” on his Telegram channel, adding: “Everyone back to work, back to getting that bag. Make this year special, stack up those Satoshis (a reference to the supposed inventor of Bitcoin).”

Of 10 million fraudulent calls made, 40% were made in the US, 35% in the UK, and the rest spread across other countries.

Simon Baker KC, defending, his client did not see the “misery” caused by the frauds at the time and was only “forced to face the real consequences” when he saw the victim impact statements.

“His guilty plea reflects his genuine regret and remorse for his actions and his sincere desire to apologize to those who have suffered as a result of the frauds perpetrated against them as a result of the iSpoof website,” it said.

Baker described Fletcher, who has a young son, as an “extremely bright young man”, adding: “It is extremely unfortunate that the intellect is not channeled into gainful pursuits.”

He worked with a youth charity and ran an anti-bullying campaign in the years before his arrest, and received an offer of a place at drama school, the lawyer added.

Judge Sally Cahill KC said she would sentence Fletcher on Friday.