Tejay Fletcher, who brought misery to thousands of Brits by facilitating fraud and scams through iSpoof, has been jailed for 15 years and four months.
In April, Fletcher pleaded guilty to:
- Making or supplying articles for use in fraud.
- Encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence.
- Possessing criminal property.
- Transferring criminal property.
iSpoof allowed criminals and fraudsters to attempt to defraud victims by posing as representatives from banks, tax offices and other organisations. Scammers would buy technology from iSpoof, allowing them to use masked phone numbers to contact unsuspecting victims. Criminals who used iSpoof were known to have posed as employees from banks including Barclays, First Direct, HSBC, Halifax, Lloyds, Nationwide, Santander and TSB.
Global consumer losses due to scams facilitated by iSpoof are thought to exceed £100 million, with over £43 million known to have been lost in the UK.
At the peak of its operations, iSpoof was allowing criminals to target 20 people per minute.
One victim of an iSpoof scammer lost £3 million, with average losses of £10,000 among 4,785 people who reported their case to Action Fraud.
However, the total number of UK victims is likely much higher, with estimates of the global victim count of around 200,000. It is thought that iSpoof allowed scammers to make about 10 million fraudulent calls, with 40% being in the United States, 35% in the UK and the remaining 25% spread worldwide.
Fletcher founded iSpoof in December 2020 and earned around £2 million in Bitcoin during its operation. Scammers paid a subscription fee – typically hundreds or thousands of pounds per month – to use the platform, which Fletcher marketed on a Telegram channel.
The Metropolitan Police said iSpoof had 59,000 users at its peak. As well as offering the technology to facilitate scam calling, the site also provided tools to help fraudsters obtain passwords and PINs.
Fletcher used the proceeds from iSpoof to purchase several cars, while officers who searched his home also found an £11,000 Rolex.
The Met described the operation to snare Fletcher as its “largest ever fraud investigation.”
In addition to Fletcher’s jailing, the Met said 169 individuals had been arrested in connection with iSpoof, and that there were several ongoing investigations into those who had used the website to conduct fraudulent activities.
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