A new documentary film is set to explore what it means to have your identity stolen online and used to scam thousands of pounds.
Belfast man James Blake is used to sharing his life online - the owner of a successful digital marketing agency, social media was where he could show off everything he worked for and market himself to his thousands of followers.
Never did he think that his face would be stolen from his accounts and used to trick people into giving away their life's savings to online crime gangs.
Read more: NI entrepreneur James Blake victim of 'Bitcoin identity scam'
'Instascam – Give me Back my Face' will follow James as he sets out to try and clear his name and in the process, discovers a dark modern-day-crime where ruthless organised-crime-gangs are using the very latest technology to prey on the age-old desire for love and companionship, all to scam blameless victims out of their life-savings.
A description of the documentary reads: "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 . . . class!
"Well, until someone scraped his accounts and he started getting messages from people accusing him of conning them out of tens thousands of pounds."
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 around 100 million pounds from victims in the UK alone in 2022.
The documentary is being made for BBC Three and iPlayer by Strident and is a co-commission with BBC Northern Ireland. It is being made with support from Northern Ireland Screen.
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