The rapper and social media personality Punchmade Dev is perhaps best known for his flashy videos singing the praises of a cybercrime lifestyle. With memorable hits such as “Internet Swiping” and “Million Dollar Criminal” earning millions of views, Punchmade has leveraged his considerable following to peddle tutorials on how to commit financial crimes online. But until recently, there wasn’t much to support a conclusion that Punchmade was actually doing the cybercrime things he promotes in his songs.
Images from Punchmade Dev’s Twitter/X account show him displaying bags of cash and wearing a functional diamond-crusted payment card skimmer.
Punchmade Dev’s most controversial mix — a rap called “Wire Fraud Tutorial” — was taken down by Youtube last summer for violating the site’s rules. Punchmade shared on social media that the video’s removal was prompted by YouTube receiving a legal process request from law enforcement officials.
The 24-year-old rapper told reporters he wasn’t instructing people how to conduct wire fraud, but instead informing his fans on how to avoid being victims of wire fraud. However, this is difficult to discern from listening to the song, which sounds very much like a step-by-step tutorial on how to commit wire fraud.
“Listen up, I’m finna show y’all how to hit a bank,” Wire Fraud Tutorial begins. “Just pay attention, this is a quick way to jug in any state. First you wanna get a bank log from a trusted site. Do your research because the information must be right.”
And even though we’re talking about an individual who regularly appears in videos wearing a half-million dollars worth of custom jewelry draped around his arm and neck (including the functional diamond-encrusted payment card skimming device pictured above), there’s never been much evidence that Punchmade was actually involved in committing cybercrimes himself. Even his most vocal critics acknowledged that the whole persona could just be savvy marketing.
That changed recently when Punchmade’s various video and social media accounts began promoting a new web shop that is selling stolen payment cards and identity data, as well as hacked financial accounts and software for producing counterfeit checks.
Punchmade Dev’s shop.
The official Punchmadedev account on Instagram links to many of the aforementioned rap videos and tutorials on cybercriming, as well as to Punchmadedev’s other profiles and websites. Among them is mainpage[.]me/punchmade, which includes the following information for “Punchmade Empire ®”
-212,961 subscribers
#1 source on Telegram
Contact: @whopunchmade
24/7 shop: https://punchmade[.]atshop[.]io
Visiting that @whopunchmade Telegram channel shows this user is promoting punchmade[.]atshop[.]io, which is currently selling hacked bank accounts and payment cards with high balances.
Clicking “purchase” on the C@sh App offering, for example, shows that for $80 the buyer will receive logins to Cash App accounts with balances between $3,000 and $5,000. “If you buy this item you’ll get my full support on discord/telegram if there is a problem!,” the site promises. Purchases can be made in cryptocurrencies, and checking out prompts one to continue payment at Coinbase.com.
Another item for sale, “Fullz + Linkable CC,” promises “ID Front + Back, SSN with 700+ Credit Score, and Linkable CC” or credit card. That also can be had for $80 in crypto.
WHO IS PUNCHMADE DEV?
Punchmade has fashioned his public persona around a collection of custom-made, diamond-covered necklaces that are as outlandish and gaudy as they are revelatory. My favorite shot from one of Punchmade’s videos features at least three of these monstrosities: One appears to be a boring old diamond and gold covered bitcoin, but the other two necklaces tell us something about where Punchmade is from:
Notice the University of Kentucky logo, and the Lexington, Ky skyline.
One of them includes the logo and mascot of the University of Kentucky. The other, an enormous diamond studded skyline, appears to have been designed based on the skyline in Lexington, Ky:
The “About” page on Punchmade Dev’s Spotify profile describes him as “an American artist, rapper, musician, producer, director, entrepreneur, actor and investor.” “Punchmade Dev is best known for his creative ways to use technology, video gaming, and social media to build a fan base,” the profile continues.
The profile explains that he launched his own record label in 2021 called Punchmade Records, where he produces his own instrumentals and edits his own music videos.
A search on companies that include the name “punchmade” at the website of the Kentucky Secretary of State brings up just one record: OBN Group LLC, in Lexington, Ky. This November 2021 record includes a Certificate of Assumed Name, which shows that Punchmade LLC is the assumed name of OBN Group LLC.
The president of OBN Group LLC is listed as Devon Turner. A search on the Secretary of State website for other businesses tied to Devon Turner reveals just one other record: A now-defunct entity called DevTakeFlightBeats Inc.
The breach tracking service Constella Intelligence finds that Devon Turner from Lexington, Ky. used the email address obndevpayments@gmail.com. A lookup on this email at DomainTools.com shows it was used to register the domain foreverpunchmade[.]com, which is registered to a Devon Turner in Lexington, Ky. A copy of this site at archive.org indicates it once sold Punchmade Dev-branded t-shirts and other merchandise.
Mr. Turner did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Searching online for Devon Turner and “Punchmade” brings up a video from @brainjuiceofficial, a YouTube channel that focuses on social media celebrities. @Brainjuiceofficial says Turner was born in October 2000, the oldest child of a single mother of five whose husband was not in the picture.
Devon Turner, a.k.a. “Punchmade Dev,” in an undated photo.
The video says the six-foot five Turner played basketball, track and football in high school, but that he gradually became obsessed with playing the video game NBA 2K17 and building a following of people watching him play the game competitively online.
According to this brief documentary, Turner previously streamed his NBA 2K17 videos on a YouTube channel called DevTakeFlight, although he originally went by the nickname OBN Dev.
“Things may eventually catch up to Devon if he isn’t careful,” @Brainjuiceofficial observed, noting that Turner has been shot at before, and also robbed at an ATM while flexing a bunch of cash for a picture and wearing $500k in jewelry. “Although you have a lot of people that are into what you do, there are a lot of people waiting for you to slip up.”
I need to sneed
It’s all fun and games until the Feds come and bust down your door. Real G’s move in silence like lasagna.
Please do the sneedful
Go Brian! Great investigative work.
It amazes me that this punk can have this stuff on a public website. Why hasn’t it been shut down?
It’s all fun and games until the Feds come and bust down your door. Real G’s move in silence like lasagna.
It’s the continuing action of 42 USC 230(c), that part of the Communications Decency Act that keeps on giving to us like a bad case of syphilis…
I would not be buying the opsec package from the guy rapping about his crimes!!! This article is too funny and entertaining.
Whyt boy really hatin just cause he brown and tryna feed his family… smh cuh this mf racist yall
You’re too funny.
don’t think diamonds are edible……to insinuate that this is the only way that “browns” can feed their families is what is racist….
Funny story but let’s see If that guy got some Music ! Cool guy
I legit can’t tell if you’re dumb or trolling, wow.
Nice article btw
That’s some major disrespect on Punchmade’s name calling him brown. He’s a white king, not a dirty minority.
YouTuber Tommy G interviewed him last year. It’s worth a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4BwEdAwgVQ
How on earth is this guy still free???? Like… Am I missing something here???
Devon slipped up already by self-doxing on YouTube, LOL, and wearing bling that is like a flashing neon finger pointing at him.
Being 99.999% likely to get arrested for his choices, and that pretty looking face, he’s really not going to enjoy prison.
What exactly is the issue here? Glorifying criminal behavior?— has anyone turned on the TV lately?
Is it because it’s self-referential or incriminating?
While we cannot support acting on material, it is important (sociologically speaking) that tactics techniques and procedures used to commit fraud are common place and well known.
well as the article very clearly states, the issue is that he runs a website indicating credibly that he is actively promoting internet fraud. And that’s the exact moment this otherwise just ridiculous person becomes a topic for IT security.
…and by the way, whatever those glitzy stones on his jewellery are, it would surprise me extremely if they were actually diamonds.
My guy, read the article. He’s selling stolen bank accounts, cards, and identities (ssn etc). That’s the issue.
This gave me secondhand embarassment, just from the soundcloud rapper larping alone. This is the epitome of a scriptkiddie right here gentlemen.
Gaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey
America doesn’t cease to surprise the World. Negatively.
Punchmade Dev may need a reality check about posing and flaunting expensive jewlery. Its not cool to dress flashy and pretend to be a cyber criminal. Getting robbed at an ATM, letting his guard down at the likeliest of places people can get robbed. If he really did the crimes, how come charges have not been made out to him. Just another victim of todays world trying to fit in. By the way, this isn’t me trying to make fun, I have a lack of understanding. He was an athlete, he had a web page of subscribers. He has potential to create content in other streaming circles other than rapping.
Its the same case with https://www.instagram.com/mr.good.luck
They do the same thing both, hope they investigate this user also. A Russian guy who is scamming people.
He’s known for scamming his fans, so it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that this “shop” he has setup is just an elaborate scam to lure wannabe fraudsters.
a lot of trolls in this comments section… was getting caught part of their plan????
sounds like a honeypot to me
If nothing else the IRS could probably make him do a couple years and bankrupt him. They got MC Hammar, Lil Wayne, and a pile of others.
Most iced-out bling is made of rhinestones or at most, cubic zirconia. Sheets of rhinestones are sold with a sticky backing so they can be attached to cover anything. Fake bling bitcoins, watches, Cuban chains, etc are for sale all over the internet. The fake bling is part of this guy’s marketing ploy. I find it interesting that his outfit of choice is a Deray blue puffy vest. LoL. Cuban chain, iced out, etc,
You can see him here trying to prove these are real diamonds
https://twitter.com/i/status/1675259448657412098
It is funny to me that a device of that sort would be viewed as proof of anything… It is a plastic box with LEDs that light up to tell you if the diamonds are real… I think it would be significantly cheaper to forge the device than to buy real diamonds (assuming the genuine product really could be used to detect real vs fake diamonds). Since he only shows one angle of view on the device, it would take no effort to put buttons on the off camera side that just turn on a little LED. Since it is video, the trick could even be a swap between a legit device and a fake one, and no one would be the wiser.
Use your brain… This article is amazingly stupid. Yes, of course, a random American rapper is going to open a store that legitimately sells information that could be used to commit fraud. He is well known to scam his fans, look at the review of the shop, you just gave him free promotion. Well done.
readers of this site are not the audience he’s trying to attract attention from…
Note that the outline around the outside (background) of the city is a map of Kentucky.