The inside story of how Portsmouth BT phone fraudsters were caught in £350,000 scam

Sophisticated fraudsters exploiting innocent BT customers’ phone lines and emails across Britain picked their targets at will - leaving a devastating trail of misery in their wake.

Members of an organised crime group based in Portsmouth had access to in excess of 2,000 identities to buy more than £350,000 of luxury goods, ranging from a Maxi-Cosi car seats to a £4,500 ring, and Rolex and Breitling watches.

Today The News can lift the lid on the police investigation, and how international commerce firm PayPal lent a hand in bringing the perpetrators to justice.

Targeting mainly older people in their callous crime, gang members led by IT graduate Festus Emosivwe, who police found with 13 SIM cards, had a digital rolodex of personal identities enabling them to bypass any security checks at will.

Their crime was effectively simple. Stolen details were obtained, police believe, via phishing emails - fake correspondence sent to scores of BT customers.

Unsuspecting account holders clicked on a link directing them to a page used to capture key data - and by then entering their user details the victims unknowingly handed over full control to underworld criminals who trade in identities.

This somehow - and prosecutors are unsure how – ended up in the hands of the gang, which operated for two years.

Emosivwe temporarily diverted phone lines and emails from the defrauded customers to the gang - enabling them to take calls and answer emails routine in security checks. Other gang members took in deliveries of goods ordered by him.

Crucially, the gang obtained bank details and took control of people’s PayPal accounts - a green light to spend as much as they wanted.

Deliveries would be directed to conspirators lower down the chain who would be paid around £50 a time.

PSI Steve Murden said: ‘It’s devastating for the people who are subjected to it. People have said they’ve become depressed. They’ve lost faith in using their computers and clicking on any form of link.

‘It’s totally destroyed their faith in technology.’

He added: ‘Some of the research that we’ve done shows that quite a few of the individuals are (older) that we’ve contacted. We’ve selected 50-odd people to contact and the majority of those were more mature.

‘(The fraudsters) have got no consideration for others whatsoever, it was all driven for a financial gain and I wouldn’t think any of them really had any thought about what devastation it could cause to the individuals.’

Some BT customers only knew their accounts had been tampered with when family were unable to reach them when the fraudsters left the divert on for too long.

When they became alert to the situation, BT took their concerns to the police and said it was a ‘national problem’ - one too big for the local force to take on in its entirety.

PSI Murden said: ‘Although BT came to us initially and said this is a national problem, the (lead investigator) at the time decided because various people have been identified in the Portsmouth area we will deal with the Hampshire aspect of the investigation because we don’t have the resources to do it nationally.

‘We focused on addresses where property had been fraudulently ordered and directed for delivery in the locality of Portsmouth.’

Key to the probe was PayPal’s assistance. ‘They did a lot of research for us based on what we knew - mobile phone numbers, addresses, names,’ said PSI Murden.

‘As result of that PayPal were able to give us what they considered to be fraudulent deliveries to various addresses.’

When they raided homes and made arrests in July, August and December 2016, police found a treasure trove of data.

Investigators uncovered a 100-page detailed document on one device - with three stolen identities listed on each page.

Key ingredients for bypassing any security guards were neatly typed in: full name, date of birth, address and other crucial details, card number, expiry date, CVV number, and BT account ID and password.

Armed with this the fraudsters were able to order high value goods between 2014 and 2016, at their peak placing a successful order each day.

Some of the victims were not BT account holders.

All of this was possible from each victim fooling for a convincing phishing email. PSI Murden’s advice is simple.

He said: ‘If people are getting emails from any source and not expecting it and are being asked to open up links, don’t click on a link if it purports to be from their bank - never divulge their personal details and contact the bank or financial institution by some other means.’

People should not contact a bank or a business using a number that has been supplied in an unexpected email – they should always check the number elsewhere.

As reported, the gang was jailed last week for a combined total of more than 18 years.

Festus Emosivwe, 36, of Newcome Road in Fratton was jailed for three years, eight months after admitting conspiracy to commit fraud.

Chloe Maylott, 27, of Purbrook Way, Leigh Park, admitted conspiracy to commit fraud and was jailed for 16 months.

Charles Onwu, 31, of Wells Close, Milton, admitted conspiracy to commit fraud and was sentenced to three years, seven months.

Victor Ngo, 30, of Lowestoft Road, Wymering, admitted conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and conspiracy to convert criminal property. He was jailed for 43 months.

Pinelopi Chatzikonstantinou, 30, formerly of Highlands Road, Southsea, was fined £1,000 after admitting conspiracy to convert criminal property.

Adel Qadir, 35, of Woofferton Road, Paulsgrove, was jailed for 29 months after he admitted conspiracy to commit fraud.

Molade Fasuyi, 37, of Methuen Road, Eastney, admitted conspiracy to commit fraud and was jailed for two years.

Olukayode Adepoju, 40, of London Road, North End, admitted conspiracy to commit fraud and was sentenced to 19 months.