RCMP clamps down on fraudulent marketing network

The people were part of an organised network that had stolen money from more than 500 people in Canada and the United States. They tricked victims into believing that they won a prize in some lottery. For them to receive this prize, however, they had to send money to pay for customs duties or administrative fees. The money that the victims sent was actually stolen.

Some of the victims did not recover any of the monies they sent to people supposedly “in distress” – another type of scam. Victims were asked to deposit the funds and then return a portion of these funds. Since the checks were false and therefore bounced, the victims not only lost their money, they were also obliged to pay banking fees for these bad checks.

The criminal network is also suspected of producing false driving licences and health and medical cards using stolen data from authentic checks. Thanks to these false identity cards, people were able to open bank accounts and obtain debit cards, enabling them to steal money from financial institutions.

The fraudsters allegedly owned businesses that used MoneyGram and Western Union. The money that was embezzled via MoneyGram and Western Union were very difficult to trace.

The operation under code name Calculateur, had 150 police and peace officers monitoring the network. Among the businesses searched by the police were Tabagie Labelle and Makola Communication operating on Lafleur Street in LaSalle.