Scammer jailed for operating billionaire website iSpoof | UK news

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Tejay Fletcher’s site offered tools that allowed criminals to make phone calls that appeared to be from trusted companies.

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Friday, May 19, 2023 08:28 EDT

The mastermind behind a fraudulent online shop used to scam victims out of more than £100 million has been jailed for more than 13 years.

Tejay Fletcher, 35, bought a £230,000 Lamborghini, two £110,000 Range Rovers and an £11,000 Rolex after winning around £2m on the iSpoof.cc website. He was the founder and main administrator of the site, which was shot down last year in the UK’s biggest fraud sting.

Criminals were offered tools that allowed them to disguise phone calls to appear to be from a trusted organization, such as a bank, allowing them to empty the accounts of their targets. Victims around the world were swindled out of at least £100m, including a minimum of £43m from people in the UK, the Southwark crown court has been told.

The website made around £3.2 million in bitcoin, and Fletcher ended up with the “lion’s share” of around £2 million, prosecutor John Ojakovoh said.

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.

Judge Sally Cahill KC jailed him for a total of 13 years and four months on Friday, telling him: “For all the victims it was a harrowing experience.”

One victim lost £3m while the 4,785 people who reported being attacked action fraud he lost an average of £10,000, according to police.

The judge said they suffered damage to their businesses, personal financial problems, insomnia, depression, emotional stress, and fights with family members.

She told Fletcher, who has 18 prior convictions for 36 crimes, that he “didn’t care” about them, adding: “The belated expression of remorse is regret at being caught rather than empathy for his victims. In my opinion, the evidence shows very clearly that he had a leading role and an active role in creating a sophisticated item for fraud, which generated a substantial profit for you.”

Simon Baker KC, a defense attorney, had told the judge that his client had no idea of ​​the scale of the eventual fraud when he created the website.

But the judge told Fletcher: “As is the case with any successful business, you probably did not realize how successful and profitable your venture would be.”

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

Judge Cahill praised the Metropolitan Police for their investigation, which involved 700 work days.

The Met 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.

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

Users of the website paid hundreds or thousands of pounds a month for its features, which were marketed in a channel called iSpoof Club on the encrypted messaging app Telegram.

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

Kate Anderson, Deputy Chief Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Fraud is not a victimless crime and the cost to the many victims in this case has not only been financial, but has also had a great emotional impact, causing a extreme distress. and devastation for those affected, many of whom had their life savings stolen.”