After kicking the wasp’s nest on Wednesday, by arresting five individuals suspected of false representative type fraud, the police delivered the final blow Thursday morning.
More than 250 civilians and police officers from the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM), the Longueuil Agglomeration Police Service (SPAL) and even the City Police Service of Toronto, have been carrying out around twenty searches since early Thursday morning in the areas of Sherbrooke, Brossard, Montreal, Laval, Saint-Canut, Saint-Lin–Laurentides, Joliette, Terrebonne, Sainte-Thérèse and in the Toronto region.
The objective is to arrest or meet 28 individuals suspected of being part of a network responsible for more than 140,000 fraudulent calls made in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada since November 2023, and which would have allowed them to fraudulently collect more than a million dollars.
“False representative fraud is a stratagem which consists of calling a senior on their residential 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,” describes the SQ in a press release issued Thursday morning.
A clear message
“This morning, we want to send a clear message to an organization that has no shame in attacking people who are among the most vulnerable in our society,” declared the spokesperson for the SQ, Jean- Raphaël Drolet.
“By posing as fake representatives, exploiting fear and generating a sense of urgency, the group managed to get their hands on hundreds of thousands of dollars, probably more than a million.”
“In some cases, they ruined people financially or stole their savings,” the spokesperson added.
Over the past three years, more than 2,200 complaints of fake representative type fraud have been reported in Quebec, mainly by elderly people.
The investigation was conducted by the Integrated Financial Integrity Team, made up of the SQ, the SPVM and the SPAL.
The police remind you to never provide your bank cards or sensitive information to anyone who calls you or knocks on your door.
To contact Daniel Renaud, call 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.