Three men have been sentenced for running a website enabling criminals to defraud victims by circumventing banking anti-fraud checks.
A National Crime Agency investigation showed that www.OTP.Agency (one-time passcode) was run by Callum Picari, 23, from Hornchurch, Essex; Vijayasidhurshan Vijayanathan, 21, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire; and Aza Siddeeque, 19, from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.
Criminals were charged a monthly subscription fee for a service which allowed them to access personal bank accounts and other accounts online to commit account takeover, fraud and steal money.
A basic package costing £30 a week allowed access to the OTP.Agency spoof call bot, designed to trick victim account holders into disclosing genuine one-time passcodes for their online accounts. This enabled criminals to bypass multifactor authentication on online banking and telecoms platforms, allowing them to access accounts and complete fraudulent transactions.
An elite plan cost £380 per month, which offered both a bespoke 'free text to speech' service, where criminals could type any message they wanted an automated call to say, and pre-scripted calls specifically designed by Picari, Vijayasidhurshan and Siddeeque to target customers. Officers recovered scripts for use by criminals pretending to call from BT, Sky, Virgin Media, HMRC, Mastercard and Visa.
The NCA says that over 12,500 members of the public were targeted with over 65,000 spoof calls between September 2019 and March 2021, when it was taken offline after the trio were arrested.
It is not known how much money the group made from the venture but estimates show it would have been around £90,000 if the 3,000 subscribers purchased the basic plan once, and up to £7.9 million if they opted for the elite package on a weekly basis.
The trio were charged with conspiracy to make and supply articles for use in fraud in January 2023. Picari was also charged with money laundering.
They all initially denied knowingly being involved in criminality, but admitted the charges at Snaresbrook Crown Court, with Siddeeque being the last to plead guilty in August last year.
Ring-leader Picari was sentenced to two years and eight months imprisonment. Vijayanathan and Siddeeque were both given 12-month community orders and ordered to pay costs of £760 each. They will also have to undertake 200 hours and 160 hours of community service respectively.
Tim Court, a senior manager from the NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit, says: "As this case shows, the NCA has the ability to disrupt and dismantle websites like www.OTP.Agency, which cause harm to the public, and bring those responsible to justice.
"We would urge anyone using online banking services to be vigilant.