2022 iSpoof fraud investigation

In 2021 and 2022 it was part of an investigation by numerous law enforcement agencies into frauds enabled by this caller ID spoofing.

[Note 1] The website allowed criminal callers to make phone calls displaying caller IDs of legitimate bodies such as banks, which enabled them to defraud victims by tricking them into transferring money, or providing information such as banking passwords which made transfers possible.

[2] Police focussed first on UK users and those who had transferred at least £100 worth of bitcoin on the site, as the total number of potential suspects, 59,000, was too great to deal with at the same time.

By means of a wiretap in Almere, the Netherlands Police gathered all calls made using the spoofing service.

[5] Detective Inspector Mel Smyth said that, while the exact amount lost in the Republic of Ireland was not known, it did run into the millions.

[3] The site administrator, 34-year-old Tejay Fletcher, was arrested in East London on 6 November 2022; on 20 April 2023 he pleaded guilty to multiple charges.

[7] Authorities from Ukraine and the USA seized the website and server, taking it offline on 8 November.