‘Piggy bank for them:’ Police crackdown on fake Ontario bank accounts – Toronto | globalnews.ca

Toronto police say they have uncovered a scheme in which hundreds of bank accounts were opened under fake names by a single man.

In a press conference on Monday, D.T. David Coffey of the Financial Crimes Unit alleged that the accused used “artificial identities” to defraud banks.

“Synthetic identities can be used to essentially create a piggy bank for them,” Coffey said. “They are applying for credit cards. They are applying for a credit line. They are opening bank accounts in which they can send money in and out.

“They are essentially applying for unlimited amounts of credit in fictitious synthetic names.”

They allege that the IDs used, such as permanent resident cards and Ontario driver’s licenses, were fraudulently created.

“Many of the cards had the same face but different names and those names are synthetic – people who don’t exist,” he said.

Coffey said the investigation began in October 2022 and was named Project Deja Vu after a financial institution released a report that found multiple fake accounts had been opened by a person who previously worked at the company. He did not say which financial institution it was, but said most of them were affected by the same scheme.

Coffey said the scheme actually began in 2016 when more than 680 unique synthetic identities were created by a handful of people.

Many of them were used to apply for and open hundreds of bank accounts and credit amounts at various banks and financial institutions across Ontario, he said.

Coffey said the fraudulent accounts were withdrawn through in-store and online purchases, cash withdrawals or e-transfers.

To date, the scheme has resulted in a loss of approximately $4 million, Coffey said.

“Ultimately, the losses are being paid by the complainants who are financial institutions,” he said. “So they’re the ones losing money.”

Coffey also alleged that the synthetic identities were known to launder the proceeds of crime from other serious criminal crimes such as human trafficking, drug trafficking and armed robbery.

Police have arrested 12 people, most of whom are from the Greater Toronto Area, who face a total of 102 charges in connection with the fraud.

The charges include fraud, forgery, forging documents and laundering the proceeds of crime.

Coffey said there have been other cases where fraudulent IDs have mixed in some real elements, such as people’s real names or SIN numbers, but in this investigation they were found to be completely false.

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