Three men sentenced for running a website enabling criminals to defraud victims

The website gave criminals access to people's personal bank accounts.

From Left to Right: Callum Picari, 23, from Hornchurch, Essex; Aza Siddeeque, 19, from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire; and Vijayasidhurshan Vijayanathan, 21, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
Author: Martha TipperPublished 27th Jan 2025
Last updated 27th Jan 2025

Three men - one from Essex and two from Buckinghamshire - have been sentenced for running a website enabling criminals to defraud victims.

The website www.OTP.Agency 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 the service - with the basic package costing £30 a week.

That package gave criminals access to personal bank accounts and other accounts online to commit account takeover, fraud and steal money.

The three men received account information by tricking victims into disclosing 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.

The national crime agency believe more than 12,500 members of the public were targeted and 3,000 criminals subscribed.

An elite plan cost £380 per month, which offered criminals a bespoke 'free text to speech' service, where criminals could type any message they wanted an automated call to say.

It would also give them access to 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 Natinal Crime Agency cyber investigators began probing the website in June 2020.

They believe over 65,000 spoof calls were carried out between September 2019 and March 2021, when the website was taken offline after the trio were arrested.

Siddeeque promoted the website on Telegram.

He provided technical support to criminal customers in exchange for unlimited use of the website to commit fraud.

Vijayanathan also promoted the website, as well as managing its administration.

Picari of Essex was the OTP.Agency owner, developer and main beneficiary.

He plugged the service on a Telegram group with over 2,200 members, posting a message in October 2019 which read: "First and last professional service for your OTP stealing needs. We promise you will be making profit within minutes of purchasing our service..."

He also said: "Ever wanted to grab a one time passcode for any website? Well now you can! With OTPAgency you can grab an otp for vbv, 30+ sites and also Apple Pay.. it's only £30 a week you really don't wanna miss out".

The OTP Agency Telegram group was deleted after an article published by Krebs on Security in February 2021 prompted a panicked message exchange between Picari and Vijayanathan.

Picari said: "bro we are in big trouble"... "U will get me bagged"... Bro delete the chat"

Vijayanathan: "Are you sure"

Picari: "So much evidence in there"

Vijayanathan: "Are you 100% sure"

Picari: "It's so incriminating"..."Take a look and search "fraud"..."Just think of all the evidence"..."that we cba to find"..."in the OTP chat"..."they will find"

Vijayanathan: "Exactly so if we just shut EVERYTHING down"

Picari: "They went to our first ever msg" ...We look incriminating"..."if we shut down"..."I say delete the chat"..."Our chat is Fraud 100%"

Vijayanathan : "Everyone with a brain will tell you stop it here and move on"

Picari: "Just because we close it doesn't mean we didn't do it"..."But deleting our chat"..."Will f*^k their investigations"..."There's nothing fraudulent on the site"

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.

At the same court on 27 January 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.

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