iSpoof fraudster guilty of £100m scam sentenced to 13 years

A multi-million pound fraudster who conned people out of more than £100m has been sentenced to 13 years in jail.

Tejay Fletcher, 35, founded and ran a complex banking scam called iSpoof, brought down last year in the UK's biggest fraud sting.

The website enabled criminals to appear as if they were calling from banks and tax offices in an attempt to defraud victims.

Fletcher pleaded guilty to four charges relating to fraud last month.

The judge said it was a "harrowing experience" for all of the victims.

As part of the scam, fraudsters using iSpoof were able to disguise phone calls so they appeared to be from a trusted organisation.

Then, posing as employees of those firms or bodies, they would call people at random and warn them of suspicious activity on their accounts.

Victims were encouraged to disclose security information and, through technology, the criminals might have accessed features such as one-time passcodes to clear their accounts of money.

The fraudsters posed as staff from banks including Barclays, Santander, HSBC, Lloyds, Halifax, First Direct, NatWest, Nationwide and TSB.

The judge said that the £100m of global losses was a conservative estimate and the figure could have been bigger.

In the UK alone, £43m was lost and one victim lost £3m.

Some 4,785 people who reported being targeted to Action Fraud lost an average of £10,000, according to police.

Fletcher, of Western Gateway in east London, made about £2m from the iSpoof website and bought a £230,000 Lamborghini, two Range Rovers worth £110,000 and an £11,000 Rolex.

The website made about £3.2m in cryptocurrency Bitcoin, with the "lions share" ending up with Fletcher, prosecutor John Ojakovoh said.

Fletcher, who has 18 previous convictions, has been sentenced to 13 years and four months in prison.

What makes this case unusual is that the thousands who lost money through sophisticated scams were not direct victims of Fletcher and his junior partners - but they were all victims of fraud directly facilitated by the iSpoof website.

The prosecution described a business set up so that elements of detailed research and development on the one hand, and marketing on the other, encouraged criminals to cash in.

Kate Anderson, deputy chief crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said the cost to many of the victims "has not just been financial".

"It has also had a huge emotional impact, causing extreme distress and devastation to those affected - many of whom had their life savings stolen from them," she said.

Describing the case as "complex and challenging", Ms Anderson thanked the Metropolitan Police for their help in securing the evidence for the case.

The judge also praised the Met for its investigation, which involved 700 days of work, and three detectives for the larger scale of investigation conducted by the force.

The Met said, at its peak, iSpoof had 59,000 users, with up to 20 people per minute targeted at one point by callers using technology bought from the site.

Last year, the Met texted 70,000 people to warn them their details had been compromised and they had likely been defrauded.

Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: "Closing down iSpoof has been the UK's biggest ever fraud operation and was a collective effort."

He said the force was proud to have taken down "criminals at the top of this fraudulent network", describing them as "heartless people".

iSpoof was created in December 2020 and users paid hundreds or thousands of pounds a month for its features.

Simon Baker KC, defending, said Fletcher was an "extremely bright young man" who has a young son, adding: "It is extremely unfortunate that intellect was not channelled into gainful activities.

"His guilty plea reflects his genuine regret and remorse for his actions and his sincere wish to apologise to those who have suffered as a result of the frauds perpetrated against them, as a result of the iSpoof website."

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