Cybercrime Rapper Sues Financial institution over Fraud Investigation – Krebs on Safety

In January, KrebsOnSecurity wrote about rapper Punchmade Dev, whose music movies sing the praises of a cybercrime way of life. That story confirmed how Punchmade’s social media profiles promoted Punchmade-themed on-line shops promoting checking account and fee card knowledge. The topic of that piece, a 22-year-old Kentucky man, is now overtly suing his monetary establishment after it blocked a $75,000 wire switch and froze his account, citing an energetic legislation enforcement investigation.

With memorable hits comparable to “Web Swiping” and “Million Greenback Prison” incomes tens of millions of views, Punchmade Dev has leveraged his appreciable following to hawk tutorials on commit monetary crimes on-line. However till not too long ago, there wasn’t a lot to help a conclusion that Punchmade was really doing the cybercrime issues he promotes in his songs.

That modified earlier this 12 months when KrebsOnSecurity confirmed how Punchmade’s social media handles have been selling Punchmade e-commerce outlets on-line that bought entry to Cashapp and PayPal accounts with balances, software program for printing checks, in addition to private and monetary knowledge on People.

Punchmade Dev’s earlier on-line store (now defunct). His Telegram channel has greater than 75,000 followers.

The January story traced Punchmade’s numerous on-line properties to a 22-year-old Devon Turner from Lexington, Ky. Reached by way of his profile on X/Twitter, Punchmade Dev mentioned they weren’t affiliated with the lawsuit filed by Turner [Punchmade’s X account provided this denial even though it has still not responded to requests for comment from the first story about him in January]. In the meantime, Mr. Turner has declined a number of requests to remark for this story.

On June 26, Turner filed a professional se lawsuit towards PNC Financial institution, alleging “illegal discriminatory and tortuous motion” after he was denied a wire switch within the quantity of $75,000. PNC Financial institution didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Turner’s criticism states {that a} follow-up name to his financial institution revealed the account had been closed resulting from “suspicious exercise,” and that he was not welcome to patronize PNC Financial institution.

“The Plaintiff is a really profitable African-American enterprise proprietor, who has generated tens of millions of {dollars} along with his companies, has employed 30 plus individuals to work for his companies,” Turner wrote.

As reported in January, amongst Turner’s companies is a Lexington entity referred to as OBN Group LLC (assumed identify Punchmade LLC). Enterprise incorporation paperwork from the Kentucky Secretary of State present he additionally ran a report label referred to as DevTakeFlightBeats Inc.

Turner’s lawsuit alleges that financial institution workers made disparaging remarks about him, suggesting the account was canceled as a result of it could be uncommon for an individual like him to have that type of cash.

A snippet from Turner’s lawsuit vs. PNC.

Extremely, Turner acknowledges that PNC instructed him his account was flagged for consideration from legislation enforcement officers.

“The PNC Financial institution customer support consultant additionally defined that there was a be aware on the account that legislation enforcement can be contacted in some unspecified time in the future in time,” the lawsuit reads.

“The Plaintiff, who was not anxious in any respect about legislation enforcement being concerned as a result of nothing unlawful occurred, knowledgeable the PNC Financial institution consultant that this was one massive mistake and requested him what his choices have been,” the criticism states.

Devon Turner, a.okay.a. “Punchmade Dev,” in an undated picture, carrying a diamond-covered Visa card. Picture: tiktok.com/brainjuiceofficial

Turner’s lawsuit mentioned PNC instructed him they’d put a be aware on his account permitting him to withdraw the funds from any department, however that when he visited a PNC department and requested to withdraw the complete quantity in his account — $500,000 — PNC refused, saying the cash had been seized.

“Finally, PNC financial institution not solely refused his request to launch his funds however knowledgeable him that his funds can be seized indefinitely as [sic] PNC Financial institution,” Turner lawsuit recounts.

The Punchmade outlets promoting monetary knowledge that have been profiled within the January story are lengthy gone, however Punchmade’s Instagram account now promotes punchmade[.]cc, which behaves and appears the identical as his older store.

Punchmade’s present store, which DomainTools says was registered to a Lexington, Ky. cellphone quantity utilized by accounts underneath the identify of Devon Turner at a number of on-line retailers.

The breach monitoring service Constella Intelligence finds the e-mail handle related to Turner’s enterprise OBN Group LLC — [email protected] — was utilized by a Devon Turner from Lexington to buy software program on-line. That report consists of the Lexington, Ky. cell phone quantity 859-963-6243, which Constella additionally finds was used to register accounts for Devon Turner on the retailer Neiman Marcus, and on the dwelling decor and trend website poshmark.com.

A search on this cellphone quantity at DomainTools reveals it’s related to two domains since 2021. The primary is the aforementioned punchmade[.]cc. The opposite is foreverpunchmade[.]com, which is registered to a Devon Turner in Lexington, Ky. A replica of this website at archive.org signifies it as soon as bought Punchmade Dev-branded t-shirts and other merchandise.

Mr. Turner included his contact info on the backside of his lawsuit. What cellphone quantity did he depart? Would you consider 859-963-6243?

The closing part of Mr. Turner’s criticism features a cellphone quantity that was used to register a well-liked on-line fraud store named after Punchmade.

Is Punchmade Dev a big-time cybercriminal enabler, as his public personna would have us consider? Or is he some two-bit nitwit who has spent a lot on customized medallions that he can’t afford a lawyer? It’s laborious to inform.

However he definitively has a broad attain: His Instagram account has ~860k followers, and his Telegram channel has greater than 75,000 subscribers, all little question in search of that candy “C@sh App sauce,” which apparently has one thing to do with transferring cryptocurrencies by Money App in a approach that financially rewards individuals ready and prepared to open up new accounts.

It’s extremely ironic that Punchmade sells tutorials on have nice “opsec,” a reference to “operational safety,” which within the cybercriminal context means the flexibility to efficiently separate one’s cybercriminal identification from one’s real-life identification: This man can’t even register a site identify anonymously.

A replica of Turner’s criticism is offered right here (PDF).

For extra on Punchmade, try the TikTok video How Punchmade Dev Got Started Scamming.

Replace, Aug. 8, 8:49 a.m. ET: A reader identified that Turner additionally recently sued a Mercedes Benz dealership in Illinois, allegedly for promoting him a lemon. In that professional se criticism, Turner included the contact e mail handle [email protected].