LONDON: The British mastermind behind a website used in a global fraud operation to steal tens of millions of pounds from thousands of victims was jailed on Friday for more than 13 years.

Tejay Fletcher, 35, the founder and leading administrator of the iSpoof.cc site, was among scores arrested last November following an 18-month worldwide probe led by London’s Metropolitan police.

Investigators from Europol, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies nabbed suspects in Australia, France, Ireland and the Netherlands, and shuttered servers in the Netherlands and Ukraine utilised by an international criminal network.

The online fraud shop offered tools that allowed them to disguise phone calls so they appeared to be from a trusted organisation, such as a bank, so they could empty their targets’ accounts.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2023