The Sûreté du Québec arrested Wednesday morning five individuals suspected of having defrauded tens of thousands of dollars from more than 80 elderly people in around thirty municipalities, using the stratagem of the telephone directory and the search for popular first names over the decades passed.
But the bloodhounds went further; They deepened their investigation by obtaining judicial authorization for a Terrebonne company, thanks to which the alleged fraudsters could display the name of a real financial institution on their victims’ display, to provide investigators with its archived data.
The Press obtained a search warrant that lifts the veil on this technology and the modus operandi of the alleged fraud.
The investigation began in 2021 and the five individuals were arrested in the LaSalle borough of Montreal and on Île Jésus, by members of the Economic Crimes Investigation Department of the SQ, in collaboration with the Police Department of the City of Montreal and the Laval Police Department.
They were met by investigators and released, to possibly appear before a summons.
The Sûreté du Québec did not reveal their identities, but names appear in the legal document including The Press got a copy.
Losses of 1.6 million
“The investigation draws its origins from several files and police information which made it possible to target a provincial network of false representative type frauds, of which Serge LÉVESQUE is the main suspect. To date, the investigation has made it possible to target other suspects, including Judson DUGUE and Jérémie BOULANGER-SAVAGE, considered to be the executors of this scheme. The name of the project associated with this investigation is “RADIEUX”, we can read in the investigator’s sworn declaration in support of the mandate.
These allegations, however, have not been tested in court. The author of the sworn declaration then describes the extent of the alleged fraud.
“Between June 2020 and August 2022, 641 cases of false representative type fraud were recorded across the province of Quebec, totaling financial losses amounting to $1.6 million. Among these files, several people were arrested and met by the police, which made it possible to make links between the suspects and the various files.”
Call me Lisa
The document summarizes information from a source who explains to the police the modus operandi of the suspects.
According to her, the main suspect decided the sector where the fraud would take place.
“He looks in the yellow pages to find names of old people and he calls them. When a fraud works, it uses two vehicles. He stays in one vehicle to make the calls and the second vehicle will collect the bank cards. This person is named striker “, says the source.
“The striker must remain on speakerphone with the main suspect so that he can hear the conversation with the elderly person. The main suspect also remains on the phone with the victim. He keeps it online as long as possible to give time to striker to go to the bank and so that she doesn’t have time to call the bank. The “striker” then goes to the banking institution of one of the cards obtained and makes money withdrawals. He then takes the money and goes to a store to buy gift cards,” the informant finishes.
According to the warrant, the fraudster who called the victims regularly used the name Stéphane Lafontaine.
“As of January 4, 2022, the account “314 909”, whose postal code entered in the profile is “H7N 4J4”, was used to make 21 calls to numbers associated with women named “LISE” all residents of Boucherville or Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville. Two of these numbers are linked to fraud files,” continues the investigator, who also cites two other cases of Lise being cheated in March 2022.
The two women were aged 78 and 79 and live less than two kilometers from each other in Saint-Eustache, on the northern suburbs of Montreal.
In one of the cases, the total amount of fraud amounted to $14,000, however including fraudulent transactions totaling $5,000 which were blocked.
Technology and fraud
“Numerous cases have been recorded in the provinces in which victims received calls displaying “1-800-224-7737” and/or “Desjardins” when it was a criminal,” we can read in the document.
The suspects allegedly used the services of the company Swiftvox-VOIP.ms located on Boulevard des Entreprises in Terrebonne and investigators requested authorization to have data from this company.
The company is an IP telephony service that allows calls to be made anywhere in the world, without a contract and at low cost, and for the caller to enter another name or the number of an existing financial institution on the display during a call to another person, explains the investigator.
The company keeps its data for seven years.
The SQ investigation allowed the police to learn that between July 29, 2021 and February 7, 2022, nearly 7,000 calls were made by 77 different VOIP.ma accounts. Of these 77 accounts, 14 are linked to 150 police files of false representative type fraud.
Of these 77 accounts, 10 are associated with a postal code linked to 115 fraud files in Quebec.
What is fake representative fraud?
“False representative” fraud is a scheme that consists of calling a senior on their home line pretending to be a representative of a financial institution. During the call, the representative mentions having spotted potential fraud in the victim’s bank account. In order to remedy this situation, the victim must hand over their bank cards as well as the personal identification number (PIN) of their cards to the false representative. An accomplice comes to the victim’s house to collect the cards. Some fraudsters go to a banking institution to withdraw money from bank accounts, while others make various purchases.
To contact Daniel Renaud, call 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.