Panorama investigation reveals how easy it is buy scam guides online for as little as £100

An Instagram fraudster who sells victims’ bank details and ‘how-to’ guides for other criminals for as little as £100 has been unmasked by BBC Panorama as a London university student. 

In eye-opening BBC One documentary Panorama: Hunting the Social Media Fraudsters, which airs tonight at 19:35pm, reporter Kafui Okpattah investigated how a new type of social media influencer – cyber scammers – use social media to promote fraud. 

While they were once hidden in the shadows of the dark web, they now work more openly online, with Kafui even managing to unmask one anonymous influencer, who seems to be a London student called Luke Joseph, who had been selling fraud guides after he boasted about it online in a rap.

Speaking to the BBC, Kafui explains that the new generation of fraudsters – who target everyone from banks and retailers to the government’s Universal Credit system – refer to it as ‘clicking’, while the guides being exchanged are known as methods. 

He added that scammers are dependent on something known as ‘fullz,’ which is slang for full information and refers to the personal details of a stranger – including their name, phone number, address and bank details.

Kafui explained that once the fraudster has got hold of the fullz, it’s as simple as following the instructions in the guide to make online purchases – with the scammer even able to take out a loan in someone else’s name.

The private details initially end up in circulation from phishing scams which they either send themselves, or they acquire the details through others. 

During the investigation, the reporter detailed how one influencer known as Tankz, who sells ‘methods,’ revealed too much about his side hustle online – even boasting about it in a rap.

He can be heard rapping: ‘I’m a London scammer. I see it, I want it, I click it.’

After messaging Tankz and pretending to want to learn more about fraud, Kafui paid £100 to buy his fraud guide online.

‘It arrived as a link, sent via social media, to 43 files on a cloud storage system,’ says Kafui. ‘The files were filled with detailed techniques on how to exploit online retailers. They also directed would-be criminals to websites where they can buy “fullz”.

Desperate to unmask the identity of the scammer, Panorama examined footage posted by Tankz online for any giveaway signs.

Among the things that stood out to them was a mention of north London’s Wembley being his local area, a reference to his university degree in economics and finance, along with a video clip of a very specific black-and-grey carpet, which investigators found matched with a website advertising student accommodation in the Wembley area.

Kafui explained how they waited outside the building the footage had lead them too, and they soon detected a man donning the same tracksuit Tankz had been wearing in a social media video shared earlier that day.  

‘His social media posts are anonymous, but we discovered that his songs were also listed on Apple Music,’ says Kafui. ‘On one of his tracks, the copyright isn’t listed to Tankz, but to what seems is his real name: Luke Joseph.

‘It didn’t stop there. We discovered an email sent from Tankz’s official address which also made a reference to the same name. There was even an eBay account under the name of Tankz, where Luke Joseph is the contact address.’

Kafui went on to say how they learned of someone of the same name living in the same student accommodation block in Wembley – adding: ‘It seems that Tankz may be a London student called Luke Joseph.’ 

Panorama reached out to Luke Joseph, and Tankz, for comment, but received no response.

During the investigation, Kafui also exchanged messages with one scammer online.

‘I contacted one fraudster who was advertising his services on social media and, through a messaging app, he offered to build me a fake website and send 4,000 phishing texts on my behalf to get people’s personal details,’ he explains. ‘His fee was £115.’

The reporter also noted that on a different Instagram page, he noticed another scammer had posted some ‘fullz’ as a ‘sort of free example’ in a bid to get others to depart with their money in return for stolen details. 

When Kafui called some of the numbers that were listed, he said strangers were shocked to learn that details including their names and card details were available online for anyone to view.    

Wilson from Oxford, who was one of the victims, says it it was ‘scary’ realising how ‘unprotected he was.’   

Panorama: Hunting the Social Media Fraudsters is on BBC One at 19:35 BST on Monday or later on iPlayer