A south London man has been jailed for four and a half years after he sold software designed to help criminals get access to consumer bank accounts.

25-year-old Timmy Ijie, who pled guilty, sold access to the service via an encrypted messaging system at a cost of $700 for a monthly subscription, payable in crypto.

According to UK Finance, which represents around 300 firms in the UK financial services sector, the software allowed online criminals to trick victims into revealing personal banking information which was then used to bypass bank security systems.

The service, which was sold by Ijie between April 2021 and February this year, was bought 1,000 times and generated £1 million in sales.

“Ijie boasted on social media how successful this software was, in enabling the commission of fraud,” said Alistair Dickson, CPS. “He bragged that, in one day alone, it had been used by criminals to defraud over 150 victims and posted positive reviews from criminals who had successfully used the software.”

Dickinson said that potentially thousands of victims had money stolen from them by criminals using the software.

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