This 'Nerd' Student DJ Was a Phishing Mastermind

Ollie Holman had a secret, and it wasn't his side gig as a club DJ. Instead, it turns out the computer science student at University of Kent in Britain was running one of the largest phishing operations in the nation. Though he's now in prison, the network orchestrated by Holman made about $140 million from duped victims in two dozen countries, writes Fin Carter at the Dispatch. Holman himself reportedly pulled in more than $400,000. Carter investigates how on earth a college student described as a "nerd" by one acquaintance got into that position, and it's "not just a story of technical ingenuity and criminal nerve, but of recklessness and addiction."

The story details the operation itself: In 2021, Homan launched a Telegram channel selling high-quality phishing "kits" that mimicked banks, tax agencies, streaming platforms, and other institutions in 24 countries. For about $400 a package, customers got ready-made fake login pages and real-time credential harvesting tools—plus support from Holman himself. The kits worked, and Holman chalked up his increasingly lavish lifestyle to tech consulting. Eventually, however, UK police—tipped off by cybersecurity firm WMC Global—traced phishing domains and crypto payments back to his university room.

Incredibly, Holman went back to business on Telegram after his 2023 arrest, only to be re-arrested the following year. By then, family members say, he was struggling with an addiction to a drink known as Lean, a combination of high-strength cough syrup and fizzy drinks such as Sprite. "I do genuinely think that he thought that he was invincible," a family member tells Carter. Holman is now serving a seven-year sentence. Upon release, "will the lure of easy money pull him back toward the criminal world," wonders Carter. "Or will he finish his degree and apply his skills to defending against the ecosystem he once helped to build?" Read the full piece.