iSpoof fraudster will pay back just fifth of his £2m fortune

The mastermind behind a website used by phone-scammers to fleece victims out of more than £100m worldwide was ordered to pay back just a fifth of his £2m fortune.

Tejay Fletcher, 38, was the brains behind iSpoof.cc which enabled crooks to swindle 200,000 victims of £43m in the UK alone.

At one point, 20 people a minute were being contacted by callers using technology bought from the site.

In exchange for monthly subscriptions, iSpoof provided its users with services, which included the ability for its subscribers to use a caller ID ‘spoof’ to appear as if they were calling victims from a bank or other trusted organisation.

Criminal users could call unsuspecting bank customers pretending to be genuine employees, obtain passwords, PIN codes, and then access customers’ bank accounts and empty them.

Fletcher, of Western Gateway, Docklands, made at least £2m and had a Lamborghini and two Range Rovers.

He admitted making or supplying articles for use in fraud, encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence, possessing criminal property and transferring criminal property.

Fletcher was jailed for 13 years and four months at Southwark Crown Court in May 2023.

He returned to court for a hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act where a judge found his total benefit figure from the fraud was £3,525,829 – but the available amount is just £404,331.

Judge Alexander Milne said: ‘For the record I will direct as invited that the benefit figure is £3,525,829. The available assets are £404,331. I direct that he has three months to pay in light of the fact that the vast majority has essentially been secured.’

The court heard was there is £70,000 left to pay in hidden assets.

Fletcher will be jailed for 12 months if he fails to pay.

He was initially charged following the largest fraud investigation that has ever taken place in the UK led by the Metropolitan Police, supported by international law enforcement.

The amount received from users in iSpoof subscriptions and then paid out to Fletcher and others was 112.6 Bitcoin (BTC), or approximately £3.2m.

Fletcher played the leading role as the website administrator for the majority of time iSpoof was operating and received by far the largest share of the profits.

John Ojakovoh, prosecuting, earlier said: ‘This was an industrial fraud designed to exploit.’

Referring to the record losses suffered by the victims of the fraud, Mr Ojakovoh said: ‘The total loss in the UK has exceeded £43m. The loss globally is at least £100m with the use of iSpoof by its fraudsters to defraud customers and the like.

‘£3.175m, just shy of £3.2m [were the] total profits of iSpoof from selling to fraudsters.

‘Then there is £2m out of that which has been identified as benefits of Mr Fletcher’s.

‘So he’s received £2m, or just short of £2m. So the lion’s share has gone to Mr Fletcher and that’s the value of the Bitcoin that has been traced to date.

Fletcher also ran a help desk on the encrypted messaging service, Telegram, to help direct fraudsters who used iSpoof.

‘He was the sole admin of that Telegram channel and used it to tell fraudsters about its issue. He told them of new technical developments and new and forthcoming features that were going into iSpoof and readily announced by this channel,’ the prosecutor said.

‘Users were paying hundreds of pounds every month for iSpoof. They couldn’t pay in anything other than Bitcoin, of course to ensure nobody could trace the payments.

‘This layer of anonymity is an indicator of sophisticated organised criminal activity.’

Messages on the Telegram account read: ‘Good morning users, team iSpoof would like to wish you a great day getting to the dollar $$$’

Another said; ‘Happy New Year all. Back to work, back to get that bag. Back to stashing those Satoshi [the developer of bitcoin].’

Fletcher had a Lamborghini, two Range Rovers and an £11k Rolex, the court heard.

Mr Ojakovoh said at the time of his arrest at his girlfriend’s house ‘he was evasive about a Lamborghini parked nearby.’

He said: ‘That was his Lamborghini. It was subsequently seized. The keys were in his jacket.

‘A Rolex watch was found in the search of his home address, this is the address he wanted to avoid the officers going to.

‘There was a money counter, an item only of use for someone with a lot of cash to count.

‘There were also Range Rovers, two Range Rovers. One in his name and one in his girlfriend’s name which appears to be paid for by him. These are high value motor vehicles.

‘£230k for the Lamborghini. £90k for one Range Rover. About £30k for another Ranger Rover.

‘The Rolex was valued at £11k.

‘The Audemar Piguet watch was fake. You can’t trust anyone these days.’

Mr Simon Baker, KC, for Fletcher, said that his client was ‘insulated from the fraud.

‘He did not know who they were or how much money was being extracted.

‘He knew of course that there were victims and they suffered as a result of his actions, but they were very much in the abstract and he did not see, at the time, the misery that was caused by his website.

‘It was only until recently that he was forced to confront the reality of his actions.’

Fletcher was sentenced to 13 years and four months imprisonment for supplying articles for use in fraud, encouraging an offence, possession of criminal property and transferring criminal property.
ENDS