Identity theft victim who caught his scammers discovered grim part of the internet 'he never knew existed'

A man whose identity was stolen by scammers discovered a horrifying aspect to the internet in a new BBC documentary airing tonight.

James Blake (no, not that one) was a successful marketing executive. However, his life changed when he began noticing a number of fake social media accounts being set up using pictures of him.

This ultimately led to Blake receiving scores of messages, with many suggesting someone using his identity had been dating them, or in some cases had taken as much as £50,000 from them.

The Belfast-born entrepreneur decided to track them down, with this becoming the focus of 2023’s BBC doc Hunting the Catfish Crime Gang.

James Blake became a presenter (BBC)

This search ultimately led Blake face-to-face with the scammers who had stolen his identity, and now he is on an even more wild search as he is the presenter for a brand new BBC documentary Hunting the Online Sex Predators.

Hunting the Online Sex Predators follows Blake investigating a dark side of the internet - cybersex crimes.

In an exclusive interview with LADbible, Blake revealed that he was shocked to find parts of the internet he ‘never knew existed’, and that the internet’s problems with sexual exploitation is far more worrying than many know.

The presenter spoke about how they were part of a generation who grew up on the internet, having gained 100,000 followers on Bebo as a young person.

He went on to say: “I like to think I have a very good understanding of the online world, you know, it's a big part of my life.

James Blake presents the show (Supplied)

“But going out there to the Philippines and seeing the effect that the internet is having on people's lives out there, meeting survivors of trafficking that have been abused online, specifically via live streaming into the UK, which, again, was really shocking to see that.”

As part of the documentary, Blake joins a Filipino police raid and speaks to victims of trafficking, but also discovered in the Phillipines that the UK is one of the biggest consumers of online content that exploits children.

He went on to say: “It really opened my eyes to go ‘Wow. Hold on a second. There's a whole side to the internet’.

“You forget that there's this whole other world outside of the UK and when you actually see that, and you meet people, and you're talking to them, and you hear the stories and how it's completely changed their lives for the worse and the horrible things that have happened - it's really shocking.”

The investigation in the documentary takes Blake to dark corners of the internet (BBC)

He finally added: “One of the things that really stood out to me when we were on that journey of making the film is the fact that at any given time you can be two clicks away from exploitive child content, which is just crazy.

“I mean, I never knew that was a thing and then also the fact that UK men are one of the biggest consumers of online streaming of children, like that is just, again, horrendous.

“It's something that, you know, I had no idea about at all. I did not know this was a thing. Didn't know how difficult it was to stop. Didn't know what was going on. So it's really made me cautious.”

Hunting the Online Sex Predators airs on BBC One at 10.40pm tonight, February 25.