Hunting The Catfish Crime Gang is a BBC Three television documentary. The programme is presented by James Blake and follows his investigation into a criminal network that stole his identity and used it for an online catfishing scam. During the investigation, the programme revealed that hundreds of fake social media profiles had been set up using Blake's likeness, and multiple women had been defrauded.
| Hunting The Catfish Crime Gang | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Factual |
| Directed by | Pete Grant |
| Presented by | James Blake |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Kelda Crawford-McCann |
| Running time | 57 minutes |
| Production company | Strident |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC Three |
| Release | 23 October 2023 |
Overview
editThe documentary investigates the use of information and photographs from social media websites, in scams, organised crime, and human trafficking.[1]
James Blake first discovered that his identity had been stolen and used in a catfishing scam after being contacted by victims.[2] Images of his life, car, family, and pets were used to create profiles on social media and dating sites.[3] Victims were persuaded to invest in cryptocurrency, and one Chinese victim was defrauded out of £50,000. He met one victim and discovered further victims in the USA, Russia, Brazil, and the Middle East.[4] An expert describes the different methods that scammers use to lure in their victims.[5]
During the investigation, Blake travelled to Thailand, where he found victims of people trafficking were forced to run the scams by criminal gangs.[6][7]
Hunting The Catfish Crime Gang features Cecilie Fjellhøy and Anna Rowe, as experts in romance fraud. Once defrauded themselves they now assist other victims of catfishing.[8]
Production
editThe programme was produced by Strident Media, with Pete Grant as the director and Kelda Crawford-McCann as the executive producer.[9] It was first broadcast on BBC Three on 23 October 2023 at 9 pm, it was also shown on BBC One and BBC One Northern Ireland.[10]
References
edit- ^ Paul Ainsworth (16 October 2023). "Lisburn man travels to Thailand on the tail of catfish scammers for new BBC documentary". The Irish News.
- ^ "Catfishing: How I hunted down the gang impersonating me online". BBC News. 20 October 2023.
- ^ Sophie McLaughlin (17 October 2023). "NI entrepreneur felt "helpless" after having identity stolen in online dating scams". BelfastLive. Retrieved 23 January 2024.
- ^ John Toner (22 October 2023). "'Catfish' gang used NI businessman's face to con people out of their life savings". Belfast Telegraph.
- ^ Alison Rowat (21 October 2023). "TV picks: Hamish Macbeth; Hunting the Catfish Crime Gang". The Herald.
- ^ Roisin Gorman (27 October 2023). "Businessman whose identity was used to catfish women tracks down scammer gang". Sunday World.
- ^ "New BBC documentary features IJM's work to stop forced scamming". International Justice Mission. Retrieved 23 January 2024.
- ^ Ruchira Sharma (24 October 2024). "How to protect yourself from romance scams". BBC. Retrieved 23 January 2024.
- ^ "Hunting the Catfish Crime Gang". BBC Online. Retrieved 23 January 2024.
- ^ "Hunting The Catfish Crime Gang entrepreneur James Blake reveals how his identity was stolen and what he learned about online scams". BBC. 17 October 2023. Retrieved 23 January 2024.