Who is James Blake and what happened to him in Hunting the Catfish Crime Gang?
JAMES Blake fell victim to a shocking online scam and he tracked down the people behind the scheme in the BBC series Hunting the Catfish Crime Gang.
Years after being scammed, Jame will front a new series named Hunting the Cybersex Crime Gang where he will join global task forces dedicated to hunting online offenders.
A sinister scam
James was working as a digital marketing agency owner when received a message which said someone had come across using his name and face.
Soon, multiple impersonator accounts appeared and some of them had pictures of his car, his friends, his family and even his work colleagues.
Things soon became much worse as he began to receive messages from people who had been scammed by the fake accounts.
Several women even claimed to have been dating him online.
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One of the women said that she had been scammed out of £50,000.
James decided to take action and launched the documentary Hunting the Catfish Crime Gang to track down his impersonators.
International scheme
He travelled to Thailand and saw huge buildings in which several of the scams were being conducted.
It was then revealed that some of the people in these centres were victims too, who had been trafficked and forced to take part in the sinister scams.
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Throughout the documentary, James said that he wanted the documentary to remove any shame surrounding the topic of scams.
He added that he hopes more people talking about the issue will make people think about safer practices on the internet.
A new battle
In 2025, James will front another BBC Three documentary series named Hunting the Cybersex Crime Gang.
Ahead of the show, James said: “My whole world is online and I thought I knew that world well, however, Hunting The Catfish Crime Gang opened my eyes to the level of organised crime and exploitation in the digital world I had never imagined.
“I’m honoured to be back with the BBC to delve further into this world to reveal the organised nature of Cybersex crime online and cast some light on this shadowy world.”
In the show, he will join a global task force dedicated to cracking down on online sex crimes in the Philippines.
Eddie Doyle, Head of Content Commissioning at the BBC, has said: “James’ first film was a hard hitting look into the world of scams and the gangs who benefit.
“This follow up shows how law enforcement is connecting globally including in the UK to try and tackle organised cybersex crime, and help audiences navigate some of the pitfalls.”