Busting phone scammers: Police raids shine light on overseas call centres (Marketplace)

this is your exclusive access to the market to catch the

scammers

in our backyard, it certainly helped CBC make their exposé or episode on the market first, the CRA scan. I gave them the inside history of India. We were trained like this, who pretend to be legends, our iris officer and then we tracked. the tech support scam why do you do this illegally what do you say we were able to enter

call

s to action make sure canadians are organized criminals protected and scams won't stop your money laundering CRA scam tech support scams sin skin all connected, feeding of each other's clues, revealed only in their market outside Toronto, federal agents are preparing, the rest, after months of investigation, are about to make key arrests, in the future, Oh, We will take strong international action against Canadians. security, we have exclusive access to witness this elimination rate at 2 a.m. m.

We just got the

call

we've been waiting for months, we knew the Mounties have been watching the alleged

scammers

and how they tell us they are ready to move in some ways this started two years ago with an investigation of their own on the other side of the world is a scam that Canadians know very well is not the real Canada Revenue Agency, but one of the largest cyber schemes in Canadian history, it will be legal as we work. To locate the scam centers in Mumbai, India, we met with a whistleblower who previously worked within Jayesh Dube.

It was a lot of money, yes, it was a lot of money, more than you would make anywhere else. I can only get anywhere. It's not easy to read. The script was threatening. person on the other end of the line while posing as a US tax agent thank you for calling the IRS at home LP so we were trained like this to become an IRS officer to pretend to be like an hour officer you are threatening the people, you're saying they could go to jail they could be arrested could they arrest you if you cry for fighting the IRS?

So the fine is $75,000 that you will never be able to pay and your assets and everything are going to be recovered. Please, we trace calls like that to a scam. center inside this building, but when our local helpers knocked on the door and the call center moved, some of them realized that someone was following them, it turns out that the danger is still there, so now it is clear to us that this area is dangerous. we have to say that we are being watched and that other people who entered the building for us are being followed.

It all shows how dangerous these scammers can be. Why do you think they were following him? We still have questions: How do they work? Scammers know who to call. How do they get money from victims? Could it be that there is an accomplice at the top in Canada? Jahangir Rashidi has the same questions. How did this start with a call? They called and said that it is Revenue Canada and the Government of Vista of Canada's claim for ninety-nine thousand five hundred dollars. What did you think when you heard that it is a huge amount? I said I don't have it, he said: go and borrow from the bank, go with your friend, go with your employee, go where you can earn. money doesn't matter you just have to pay you have to pay you pay he is from Iran where the government actually makes demands like this he was worried that the call was legitimate and he paid a lot one hundred and ten thousand in total forty five thousand was my RSP and then five thousand dollars in my savings account, $4,000 for my last paycheck, checking account, $5,000 from my son and the rest, credit card, a long line of credit, they are life savings, they went down the drain.

India, so how long have you been commissioner of

police

here? Senior cop Paramveer Singh says the scam the kingpins are leading a rich

light

one of the main accused had a very high profile lifestyle he was probably thinking of buying a private jet also at that time a private jet was thinking of buy one yes funded by millions stolen from victims living in North America and Commissioner Singh has another surprise about the

police

in Canada, no one contacted us from Canada, no one was caught, no one, no one contacted us, the US authorities contacted us, no one contacted us, although on the RCMP website we saw a post related to others. cases once, but you're telling me that at least 60,000 people have complained in Canada and no one from Canada is doing anything that no one has pointed out and the only way you found out is by going to the RCMP website yourself, that's true yeah that doesn't seem true they don't just when our story is broadcast across Canada there is outrage can the Minister of Public Safety explain why Canadians have to rely on the CBC to uncover this scam and protect Canadians ?

Will the Prime Minister tell us how we will follow up to ensure that these calls stop and to ensure that Canadians are protected from organized criminals in India's intelligence services and agents to do what is necessary to protect Canadians in At home and abroad, the RCMP later says they have been talking to India, but all this attention jeopardizes the situation. topic in the foreground empower more people to come forward this is very scary this is very scary my stomach was right in the SEC you feel heavy a month after our story taught the bosses orders that a special task force be established In this secure facility on the outskirts of Toronto we enter headquarters, but what the RCMP calls Project Octavia is essentially a national priority investigation and Inspector Jim Ogden has a surprise.

Certainly what I know and what I can share is that there are clues to our known targets, when we have enough evidence, then we will charge. and prosecute these people and to be clear, we are talking about people who are in this country in Canada, that is correct, who are helping to carry out this scam, that is correct, they are defrauding the Canadian public and sending it, sending it , are laundering money while the Mounties focus on tracking down Canadians connected to this crime. Our trail took us back to India a year after our first investigation into the CRA scam and we approached the call centers carrying out another one, this time we had something up.

Our manga hired someone to introduce a hidden camera were the first to get into the tech support scam with criminals using scare tactics to demand payment for a computer repair you probably don't need which made you think this was legitimate, He sounded really worried and led me to believe that he could fix the problem when Diane starts her Facebook account stops working, calls a number she thinks is for Facebook support, but ends up with a convincing scammer when you remember it now. , How do you feel about that? I was vulnerable at the time and I was impulsive, yes, and I feel very violated by the fact that they had access to everything on our computer.

Our laws should protect us against things like this. After months of our own investigation, we are ready to confront those who attack Canadians, which is surprising to think is here in India. We have seen that scammers can be dangerous, so we are moving quickly. The company whose name is at this address says this is a legitimate operation, but we know some of the insiders are running a scam. Why do you have a call center here? Why are you doing this illegally? We want to talk to the top bosses. There are real victims. Real victims. These are real people who can't afford to lose this money.

You're taking it away. There seems to be no one here. want to talk to us at least while we're here they're offline anyone wants to say something no one's okay in Canada we shared our findings with the RCMP's top superintendent financial crimes officer, Peter Payne, what does that say? We were able to get into a call center like this, yes, no, I applaud your efforts to get in there, but again, the police alone cannot solve this problem. There are many call centers. What do you say to the scammers that were there if you think you're unstoppable uh we're not going to give up it turns out this battle is a bit of an omen.

The Mounties know there are shills in Canada, they know who they are, we're about to find out too, this is their market on the roads outside of Toronto. a man has no idea the police are following him, the RCMP is closing in on the Canadians, they say they are complicit in a huge cyber plot and we are about to witness it all come crashing down, we are right outside the secure RCMP facility after months of investigation into some of the largest cyber schemes in Canadian history they are ready to take action and these are schemes like the CRA scam, the tech support scam, bank investigators scanned the card scam of timing, everything came to a head early this morning, we began our investigation.

As of October 2018, Inspector Jim Ogden oversees Project Octavia, the specialist unit that investigates call center scams. My message is that we will find it, investigate further and collect where we can. He traced many of these scams to India, such as the tech support scam. How much money was stolen from you? Three thousand three thousand dollars when he now hid. He objects to the

phone

stopping working. Google is a solution and calls the number that appears on your screen. He went to the

phone

and said there are many problems in the phone, there are hackers from Russia, from India, from Brazil, he said all that about his phone, yes, he said it is a complicated issue, we have to work on this phone, It has to cost a minimum of three thousand dollars to be able to make the transaction now he pays with his missing money I told him where is my money?

Where is the money? Are you talking to this guy, are you thieves? Then he hung up the phone and I tied the game like ten times twelve times, no one wants to answer. Even as police close in on multiple scams, scammers are adapting by adding a new scheme involving Canadian social security numbers. We have just offended your social security number and legal action will be taken against you as we found some suspicious activities and the authorities are getting help. a big name in the world of technology that brings us back to Microsoft's headquarters near Seattle and inside its Digital Crimes Unit.

We were here a year ago checking out how artificial intelligence is helping track down scammers. This is a very profitable crime with very low risk. of prosecution we need to reverse that equation lawyer the hard way abroad the global unit here has been supplying leads and evidence to India for the last ten months Indian law enforcement agencies have dismantled ferry call centers brought to justice to seventy-two call center managers there, but Microsoft tells you we, while there have been arrests in India, there hasn't been a single conviction of a scam boss since 2014, you got this letter right, show me that's really interesting , but Hardaway says they are not going to give up continuing their war with scammers, Microsoft says.

You get a complaint from someone impersonating your agents every seven minutes but now the guys are selling calls for the call centers to exploit, it's almost like a scam franchise exactly and it's become that because there's a lot to be made money and, as I said, the profits are so great relative to the investment that our own research has led us to believe that there are people in Canada who help with this scam, who help move money and do other things, it is something that you also understand, yes, that's right, a trail leads to this house in the suburbs.

Vancouver CBC was the first to discover court documents accusing the man who lives here of recovering money from fraud related to these scams. He even allegedly moves approximately a million dollars through his accounts. Prosecutors say he is laundering the proceeds of illegal activities and they are trying. to take over his father's house and denies any wrongdoing, while his son has reportedly fled to China, we need to target the bad guys' wallets so that if the money stops flowing, they can't keep their operation. run and they will shut down Microsoft is targeting those money mules and talking to Canadian police about how to do it.

We are working with law enforcement and also with other banking financial services industries to identify those bad bank accounts or business accounts so that they can be suspended and the money returned to the victims and they are not the only ones. Canadian police are also interested if. The Mounties are about to take down what they call a super muleof money, a high-level scammer who lives right here. in Canada who they are and how the police officers found them this is their market it's a federal raid our CMP officers are about to go after a man they say is a major player in scam calls affecting Canadians who are they took my trust my trust now everything is hidden philipose is a victim of one of those scams who has waited a long time to see action who should try to stop these guys why did they do that what is it in Canada and India cooperate together victims like Knobhead and All of us, who receive these calls incessantly, are about to see the RCMP act seconds after the target arrives at work, the officers walk in, we are not allowed any closer to this factory in Georgetown, northwest of Toronto, while The man and the reflective jacket are taken inside. custody everything he had in his pockets placed in bags by the police it seems that he had no idea that he was being watched, that there were people that the police officers were following him and they caught him just when he showed up for work.

We have agreed not to identify the police as many of them are undercover, the man is being charged with fraud, money laundering and property obtained by crime. We watch as he is taken away on a morning he will probably never forget as the man arrives at RCMP headquarters in Milton Ontario to be fingerprinted and processed by officers. the phone to her wife telling her that they are looking for her - her husband is already in custody, they told him to turn himself in and they were there when she arrives, they were essentially money mules or money mule managers who were receiving bags of cash .

RCMP Inspector Jim Ogden tells us his team's investigation shows that this couple was working directly with Indian scammers and then essentially dispersing them and making them accessible to those who were running illegal call centers in India, which helped you get to this point today. The CBC Marketplace episode he did in India certainly raised a flag for the Minister of Public Safety and a senior RCMP representative at a later press conference. Gurinder Preet Dhaliwal, 37 years old. of Brampton Ontario and Inderpreet Delhi, age 36, also of Branton, are charged with the following criminal offenses: one count of fraud over $5,000, one count of laundering proceeds of crime and one count of property obtained through crime.

The Mounties reveal thousands of dollars in cash plus a hundred thousand in jewelry, including a money counting machine allegedly used by the couple, the couple has yet to appear in court to enter a plea in response to the charges, it is already Time for us to show footage of the arrests tonight, when you see a guy like that in handcuffs. I'm happy, definitely, very happy about that and I appreciate what the police have done to do this. This is a big win, even if I don't get my money. I am happy that action was taken. being taken to save other people, this is very important, kudos to the woman who knew she was interviewed and who was willing to come forward and tell everything, tell all the victims that they need to see that they are not alone watching the RCMP take down Mark Simcha s. he's the former head of a major fraud unit, good for them, good for them, damn, this is something you've been waiting a long time to see.

Are you surprised that it happened? I wanted to have faith and I'm glad they showed it to me. true, I congratulate you on that because it must have been very difficult and congratulations to the market and the hookahs because here are the ones who instigated all this in my opinion, you know? The probability is that these fraudulent calls will disappear not very not very they will continue the frequency may decrease it may change why? Because there are still victims here who are vulnerable. Fraud. You know it's theft. With a smile, the arrests are not over. The RCMP says they are targeting more people in Canada. and abroad, this will be a deterrent, we will surely make our co-conspirators who are here in this province think twice, well, I thought we were untouchable and we are not, it is the crackdown on counterfeits that says in big red letters don't sell fakes five companies 100 products I'm surprised by me other people it's happening too how many other people don't even know this is happening getting a good deal or being scammed with us sure and you follow the money It's very scary if the products They contain dangerous lead and chromium concentrations are quite high and they defend themselves in their market.