A selfie posted by Puchmade Dev on his Twitter account. Yes, that’s a handheld, diamond-encrusted active skiing device. Underneath that there are many rewards, including diamond packed bitcoin and payment card.
In January, KrebsOnSecurity wrote about the rapper Punchmade Dev, their music videos sing the praises of the cybercriminal lifestyle. That story showed how Punchmade social media profiles promote Punchmade-themed online stores that sell bank account and payment card data. The subject of that piece, a 22-year-old Kentucky man, is now suing his financial institution in contempt after it blocked a $75,000 wire transfer and closed his account, citing an active investigation.
With memorable hits like “Swiping the Internet” and “The Million Dollar Hacker” garnering millions of views, Punchmade Dev has leveraged its following into selling tutorials on how to commit financial crimes online. But until recently, there wasn’t much to support the conclusion that Punchmade was actually doing the cybercriminal things he advocated in his songs.
That changed earlier this year when KrebsOnSecurity showed how Punchmade’s social media handles were advertising Punchmade’s e-commerce stores selling access Cashapp again PayPal accounts with balances, print checking software, and personal and financial data for Americans.
Punchmade Dev’s previous online store (now defunct). His Telegram channel has over 75,000 followers.
A January story traced Punchmade’s online properties to a 22-year-old Devon Turner from Lexington, Ky. Reached by his own profile on X/TwitterPunchmade Dev said they have nothing to do with the case 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]. Meanwhile, Mr. Turner declined multiple requests for comment on the story.
On June 26, Turner filed ia pro se case against PNC Bank, alleging “unlawful acts of discrimination and harassment” after he was denied a $75,000 bank transfer. PNC Bank did not respond to a request for comment.
Turner’s complaint alleges that a follow-up call to his bank indicated that the account had been closed due to “suspicious activity,” and that he was no longer accepted at PNC Bank.
“The plaintiff is a very successful African-American business owner, who has brought in millions of dollars through his businesses, employing 30 people to work in his businesses,” Turner wrote.
As reported in January, among Turner’s businesses is a Lexington-based corporation OBN Group LLC (a pseudonym Punchmade LLC). Business incorporation documents from the Kentucky Secretary of State show that he owned a record label called DevTakeFlightBeats Inc.
Turner’s lawsuit alleges that bank employees made disparaging remarks about him, suggesting that the account was withdrawn because it was unusual for someone like him to have that kind of money.
Excerpts from the case of Turner vs. PNC.
Surprisingly, Turner agrees PNC told him his account had been flagged for the attention of law enforcement officials.
“The PNC Bank customer service representative also explained that there is a letter written on the account stating that law enforcement will be contacted at some point,” the case continued.
“The plaintiff, who was not at all concerned about law enforcement involvement because nothing illegal had occurred, informed the PNC Bank representative that this was a serious mistake and asked him what his options were,” the complaint states.
Devon Turner, aka “Punchmade Dev,” in an undated photo, wearing a diamond-encrusted Visa card. Photo: tiktok.com/brainjuiceofficial
Turner’s lawsuit said PNC told him it would put a letter in his account allowing him to withdraw funds from any branch, but when he visited a PNC branch and asked to withdraw the entire amount from his account – $500,000 – PNC refused, saying the money was held.
“In the end, PNC bank not only refused his request to withdraw his funds but told him that his money will be taken forever. [sic] PNC Bank,” Turner recounted.
The Punchmade stores selling financial data featured in the January issue are gone, but Punchmade’s Instagram account is now improving. made with a fist[.]ccbehaving and looking like his old shop.
Punchmade’s current store, DomainTools, is registered to a Lexington, Ky. phone number. used by accounts under the name of Devon Taylor in many online stores.
Breach tracking service Constella Intelligence finds an email address associated with Turner’s enterprise OBN Group LLC — [email protected] — used by Devon Turner of Lexington to buy software online. That record includes Lexington, Ky. mobile phone number 859-963-6243Constella also found it was being used to register Devon Turner’s accounts at retailer Neiman Marcus, as well as at home decor and fashion site poshmark.com.
A search of this phone number on DomainTools shows that it is associated with two domain names from 2021. The first is the version mentioned above.[.]cc. Another forepunchmade[.]com, registered to Devon Turner in Lexington, Ky. A copy of this site on archive.org shows that it once sold Punchmade Dev-branded t-shirts and other merchandise.
Mr. Turner included her contact information at the end of her lawsuit. What phone number did he leave? Don’t believe it 859-963-6243?
The closing part of Mr. Turner includes a phone number that was used to register a popular counterfeiting store called Punchmade.
Is Punchmade Dev a big-time cybercriminal, as his public persona would have us believe? Or is he a two-bit nitwit who has spent so much money on human rights that he can’t afford a lawyer? It’s hard to say.
But he has a wide reach: His Instagram account has 860k followers, and his Telegram channel has more than 75,000 subscribers, all of whom are no doubt looking for that “C@sh App” sweet sauce, apparently related to moving cryptocurrencies through. Cash App in a financially rewarding way for people who know and are willing to open new accounts.
It’s incredibly ironic that Punchmade sells a tutorial on how to have good “opsec,” a reference to “operational security,” when by cybercrime it means the ability to successfully separate cybercriminal identities from real-life human identities: This guy can’t. I mean registering a domain name anonymously.
A copy of Turner’s complaint is available here (PDF).
For more on Punchmade, check out the TikTok video How Punchmade Dev Started Cheating.