A partial selfie posted by Punchmade Dev to his Twitter account. Sure, that may be a functioning handheld card skimming gadget, encrusted in diamonds. Beneath which can be extra medallions, together with a diamond-studded bitcoin and cost card.
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 cost card information. 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 regulation enforcement investigation.
With memorable hits comparable to “Web Swiping” and “Million Greenback Felony” incomes tens of millions of views, Punchmade Dev has leveraged his appreciable following to hawk tutorials on the best way to commit monetary crimes on-line. However till lately, there wasn’t a lot to assist a conclusion that Punchmade was truly doing the cybercrime issues he promotes in his songs.
That modified earlier this yr when KrebsOnSecurity showed how Punchmade’s social media handles have been selling Punchmade e-commerce retailers on-line that bought entry to Cashapp and PayPal accounts with balances, software program for printing checks, in addition to private and monetary information on Individuals.
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 in opposition to 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 on account of “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 folks 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 title 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 employees 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 form of cash.
A snippet from Turner’s lawsuit vs. PNC.
Extremely, Turner acknowledges that PNC instructed him his account was flagged for consideration from regulation enforcement officers.
“The PNC Financial institution customer support consultant additionally defined that there was a notice on the account that regulation enforcement could be contacted sooner or later in time,” the lawsuit reads.
“The Plaintiff, who was not nervous in any respect about regulation enforcement being concerned as a result of nothing unlawful occurred, knowledgeable the PNC Financial institution consultant that this was one large mistake and requested him what his choices have been,” the criticism states.
Devon Turner, a.ok.a. “Punchmade Dev,” in an undated photograph, sporting a diamond-covered Visa card. Picture: tiktok.com/brainjuiceofficial
Turner’s lawsuit mentioned PNC instructed him they’d put a notice on his account permitting him to withdraw the funds from any department, however that when he visited a PNC department and requested to withdraw your complete quantity in his account — $500,000 — PNC refused, saying the cash had been seized.
“In the end, PNC financial institution not solely refused his request to launch his funds however knowledgeable him that his funds could be seized indefinitely as [sic] PNC Financial institution,” Turner lawsuit recounts.
The Punchmade retailers promoting monetary information 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 title 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 contains 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 vogue web site poshmark.com.
A search on this cellphone quantity at DomainTools exhibits 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 web site at archive.org signifies it as soon as bought Punchmade Dev-branded t-shirts and other merchandise.
Mr. Turner included his contact data on the backside of his lawsuit. What cellphone quantity did he go away? Would you imagine 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 imagine? Or is he some two-bit nitwit who has spent a lot on customized medallions that he can’t afford a lawyer? It’s exhausting 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 shifting cryptocurrencies via Money App in a approach that financially rewards folks ready and prepared to open up new accounts.
It’s extremely ironic that Punchmade sells tutorials on the best way to have nice “opsec,” a reference to “operational safety,” which within the cybercriminal context means the power to efficiently separate one’s cybercriminal identification from one’s real-life identification: This man can’t even register a website title anonymously.
A replica of Turner’s criticism is accessible 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 electronic mail handle [email protected].
