Man accused of £1.5m Web scams

October 2005

A UK man on trial this week over alleged death threats had separately obtained over £1.5m through a series of online scams, the court heard on Tuesday.

Peterborough Crown Court was told by the prosecution that Peter Francis-Macrae had tricked thousands of people into sending him money to register a .eu domain name on their behalf. Francis-Macrae is also alleged to have sent letters to people whose domain names were about to expire, demanding a renewal fee.

According to The Times, at its height the .eu scam brought in £200,000 per month, while the domain registration letters accrued some £600,000.

Francis-Macrae is charged with making threats to kill against two women and a man, threatening to destroy or damage property by claiming he would burn down Cambridgeshire trading standards department, blackmail, fraudulent trading and transferring criminal property or “money laundering”. He denies the charges.