PHISHERS REELED INTO JAIL
An organised crime gang based in South London defrauded businesses out of £1million in a mass phishing con.
Ringleaders Emmanuel Mmaduike – nicknamed Bigdoz – and Olawale Kashimawo, both 31, regularly posed for photographs showing off wads of money, expensive watches and drinking champagne.
In the scam known as business email compromise, the crooks bought around 1.6 million email addresses through the dark web.
Then, posing as a regular supplier, they sent messages directing the businesses to fake Paypal or similar sites and harvested their passwords.
These were used to hack into emails and divert the invoice payments to their own accounts.
Last week Kashimawo was sentenced at Kingston crown court, Surrey, to six years and nine months’ jail after he admitted money laundering charges.
Mmaduike was jailed for six years and 10 months last year after admitting money laundering, fraud and perverting the course of justice in relation to a sham marriage to a Dutch national.
They were caught after the cyber crime unit of the National Crime Agency moved in.
Operations manager Andrew Shorrock said he was pleased with the sentences for the fraud.
“Some of the businesses have taken a big hit, typically between £10,000 and £100,000, and it might not be something insurers will pay out for,” he said. Most of the victims worked in the construction trade and were targeted by the crooks because of their high volume of invoices and the ease of posing as a genuine supplier.