RCMP charge 2 Toronto residents with defrauding almost 600 Canadians out of millions of dollars

Two Toronto residents are facing several charges after the RCMP says they defrauded almost 600 Canadians out of millions of dollars.

Police officials say the pair allegedly used technology provided by a website that would conceal their phone number while impersonating trusted corporations such as banks, government agencies and police departments in order to trick people into giving them money.

Investigators say the pair were among the top 50 most active subscribers to the website “iSpoof.cc,” which they say allowed people to make unauthorized phone calls while displaying a caller ID falsely indicating that they were legitimate callers.

Ontario RCMP’s Cybercrime unit seized several items during a search of a Toronto home on February 19 including electronic devices. Police say the couple used a variety of different spoofing, phishing and smishing schemes to target at least 570 victims to date but they expect that number to increase as their investigation continues.

Chakib Mansouri, 29, and Majdouline Alouah, 31, have been charged with fraud, unauthorized use of a computer, laundering proceeds of crime, unauthorized possession of credit card data, and possessing the proceeds of crime.

“Evidence indicates that the scale of their operation was enormous. We allege that these individuals are responsible for millions of dollars of loss to victims across Canada,” said Insp. Lina Dabit with the Ontario RCMP.

“Further we suspect that every bank in Canada has been a victim of these suspects as well as many of their clients.”

According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Canadians lost $638 million to fraud last year. Dabit said that number is underreported, noting that nearly every Canadian has experienced scam phone calls and that the volume of calls to police and the centre has grown exponentially.

The pair have been remanded in custody pending a court date on February 21.