A 19-year-old from Milton Keynes has been named as one of three found guilty of bank fraud after running a website that targeted over 12,500 individuals.
Aza Siddeeque, 19, from Milton Keynes, alongside Callum Picari, 22, from Hornchurch, Essex, and Vijayasidhurshan Vijayanathan, 21, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, were identified by a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation as the operators behind the website, www.OTP.Agency.
The website facilitated fraudulent activities by offering criminals the ability to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) on banking platforms like HSBC, Monzo, and Lloyds. Subscribers paid for various packages, ranging from a basic plan costing £30 per week to an elite option priced at £380 per week, which provided access to Visa and Mastercard verification sites. This allowed fraudsters to manipulate bank account holders into revealing one-time passcodes or other personal information, enabling unauthorised transactions.
The NCA began investigating the operation in June 2020 and discovered that the website had been active from September 2019 until its shutdown in March 2021, following the arrests of the trio. During this period, more than 12,500 individuals were targeted by the site.
While the exact financial gain from this criminal enterprise remains unknown, estimates suggest that the group could have earned around £30,000 from basic plan purchases, with potential earnings reaching up to £7.9 million from elite subscribers.
This case highlights the persistent threat of online fraud and the importance of robust cybersecurity measures to protect personal information and financial systems.
Anna Smith, Operations Manager from the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit, said, "The trio profited from these serious crimes by running www.OTP.Agency and their convictions are a warning to anyone else offering similar services; the NCA has the ability to disrupt and dismantle websites which pose a threat to people’s livelihoods."
