Hunting the Catfish Crime Gang

Format

1 x 60'

Production company

Strident

Year of production

2023

Commissioning channels

BBC3 / iPlayer

We’ve never lived so much of our lives online, or so publicly… sharing what we love, where we go, and what we do with anyone who wants to take a look. It can make you friends, it can make you rich… it can even make you famous. BUT what do you do if you’re busy living your best life on the gram and someone steals your face, your name and even your puppy pics and starts using them to insta-scam – and everyone thinks it’s you?

James – a 29-year-old from Belfast, who’s building himself a multi-million pound digital marketing business from nothing – was living the insta-dream: flash clothes, fast cars, exclusive parties and thousands of followers . . . until someone copied his accounts and he started getting messages from people accusing him of conning them out of tens thousands of pounds.

As he sets out to try and clear his name, James discovers a dark and utterly-heartless modern-day-crime where ruthless organised-crime-gangs are using the very latest technology to prey on our age-old desire for love and companionship, all to scam blameless victims out of their life-savings.

As James attempts to get his online identity back, he’ll discover that shockingly it’s not only those being conned who are the victims here – many of those carrying out the con are suffering even more at the hands of gangs running romance-scams estimated to have netted over a 100 million pounds from victims 2022.

UK Premiere - Autumn 2023

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Screener: Hunting the Catfish Crime Gang