Arrests in Synthetic Identity Fraud

Toronto Police has made 12 arrests and laid 102 charges in a major identity fraud investigation dubbed Project Déjà Vu.

Financial Crimes Detective David Coffey said the investigation began in October 2022 following a report from a financial institution that located several synthetic accounts, most of which had been opened by a single person who had previously worked on the company’s behalf.

“The perpetrators of this scheme, which began in 2016, are alleged to have created more than 680 unique synthetic identities, many of which were used to apply for and open hundreds of bank and credit accounts at various banks and financial institutions across Ontario,” he said at a news conference at police headquarters on April 29.

“They fraudulently obtained credit accounts were then drawn upon by way of in-store and online purchases, cash withdrawals or electronic fund transfers.”

Coffey said fraudulent payments, in many cases, were made into the credit accounts to allow them to be drawn beyond their defined limits.

So far, the scheme has resulted in confirmed losses of about $4 million.

Synthetic identify fraud is a form of financial fraud in which fictional personal information is used to open accounts with banks, financial institutions or other businesses.

In general, accounts obtained under synthetic identities are known to facilitate other serious criminal offences, including the laundering of proceeds derived from human trafficking, drug trafficking and armed robbery among other serious crimes.

Police executed more than 20 search warrants and 80 production orders to investigate the case and to trace the flow of proceeds of crime generated by these synthetic identity frauds.

“Several dozen synthetic identity documents and electronic templates to create false identifications and false documents and hundreds of payment cards, such as debit cards, credit cards and charge cards associated to bank or credit accounts obtained under synthetic identities were seized,” Coffey said. “In addition, approximately $300,000 in Canadian and foreign cash were seized as proceeds of crime.”

The investigation is ongoing.

“We believe there are other people who were complicit in this scheme and we are working to identify them,” noted Coffey. “We also believe there may be additional incidents and victims.”

Investigators want to speak with any businesses that were approached by any of the arrested persons for the purpose of applying for or opening any accounts, any persons or businesses who performed home renovations for any of the persons arrested and persons who bought items, mainly appliances, electronics and/or automotive parts from any of the arrested persons.

The transactions may have been facilitated through an online buy-and-sell platform.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-7300, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477) or at www.222tips.com.

Read the news release for a list of arrests and charges.

On behalf of Toronto Police, Coffey thanked other law enforcement partners and government agencies for assisting in the investigation.

They include Halton, Peel and Waterloo Police, Canada Revenue Agency, the Financial Transactions & Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Finance, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and the Toronto Police Financial Crimes Unit.

Visit www.tps.ca/fraud for information on how to report and prevent fraud.