My identity was stolen by a ‘catfish gang’ who used it to scam people out of thousands of pounds – I was shocked when I started hunting down the fraudsters

A man has revealed how his identity was stolen by fraudsters who used it to scam people out of thousands of pounds – before his story was shared in a new documentary.

James Blake, from Lisburn, Northern Ireland, joined Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary on This Morning to share his harrowing experience, which resulted in tonight’s BBC Three programme, Hunting for the catfish Crime Gang.

The 30-year-old entrepreneur revealed he received messages from women accusing him of defrauding them of tens of thousands of pounds.

James, owner of a digital marketing agency, decided to track down the fraudsters and discovered that not only are the victims being scammed, but the scammers themselves are often victims of human trafficking and abuse by the gangs that orchestrate these crimes.

Speaking on the ITV show, he said: ‘A few profiles popped up and initially I thought this was someone in their bedroom messing around and I thought nothing of it.

‘[The accounts] I had all my photos, photos of my family, my cars, my team in the company and at first I thought, this is funny, kind of bizarre, but it’s probably a kid messing around.

‘But over time it got worse and worse, to the point where I was waking up to five to 10 messages a day from people saying I was chatting with you on dating apps and on social media.

“Unfortunately, I also got the strange notification of someone saying I had invested money with this person, or that I had sent him money and he had lost.”

James explained that it all came to a head when a man left a one-star review on his company’s page and said: ‘Don’t use this company, this man likes to mess with other people’s wives.’

He said: ‘Obviously I see that going ‘what the hell is this’, so I messaged him and we chatted.

‘He had shared screenshots with me. His wife had been talking to a fake of mine online and decided to divorce him. She sent him an email throwing him out of the house.”

James admitted that at that moment he knew the situation was serious because people had a lot to lose.

The entrepreneur revealed that he reported the fake profiles on Instagram, but they were not removed because they “didn’t violate the community guidelines.” He also said he spoke to police, who told him there was nothing they could do.

The 30-year-old entrepreneur revealed he received messages from women accusing him of scamming them out of tens of thousands of pounds

James, owner of a digital marketing agency, decided to track down the fraudsters and discovered that not only are the victims being scammed, but the scammers themselves are often victims of human trafficking and abuse by the gangs that orchestrate these crimes.

After going to the press as a last resort, James said it helped a bit and decided to make a documentary about his experiences.

He traveled to Thailand for the program, where he learned about the sophisticated operation behind the scam.

He said: ‘I end up traveling to South East Asia and what I discover is just astonishing and I don’t think most viewers of the documentary will expect it to go this way.

‘It turns out the people behind these fake profiles aren’t kids in their bedrooms, in fact there are people who are in huge office facilities, these offices wouldn’t look out of place in Canary Wharf.

‘This type of fraud is a multi-billion dollar industry, but the sad thing is that these buildings are filled with thousands of people who are actively defrauding people, but even sadder than that, they are being forced to do so.

The entrepreneur revealed that he reported the fake profiles on Instagram, but they were not removed because they ‘didn’t violate the community guidelines’

He traveled to Thailand, where he learned about the sophisticated operation behind this scam

“A lot of these people come to these places thinking they’re going to get legitimate jobs and then they’re forced to rip people off. It’s terrible, they are trafficked through criminal organizations, they are dehumanized, they are beaten and electrocuted.

“They are given insane sales targets for scamming people and if they don’t meet them they are taken advantage of. It’s terrible.’

James warned others to protect themselves online by branding their content so scammers can’t use it.

A spokesperson for the Police Service of Northern Ireland told Mail Online: ‘Police received a report in September 2021 but no criminal offenses were identified.

‘Information was provided on online security and advice on reporting fake profiles to the relevant social media companies.’

Anyone who feels they have fallen victim to any form of scam, online or otherwise, should report it to their local police.

Hunting The Catfish Crime Gang airs on BBC Three on Monday, October 23 at 9pm.