Police serving the region of Halton in Ontario, Canada, have arrested two men suspected of raiding bank accounts by swapping SIMs and creating bogus ID using sophisticated counterfeiting technology. 13 victims collectively lost more than CAD136,000 (USD100,000) from accounts held with a variety of financial institutions.
Search warrants were executed at residences in Toronto and Brantford, leading to the seizure of 60 mobile phones, 200 SIM cards, bogus ID, a credit card printer with blank cards, an ID scanner and printers, cash in Canadian dollars, US dollars, Euros and British Pounds collectively worth CAD166,100 (USD121,600) and two gold bars valued at CAD6,300 (USD4,600). The counterfeit ID equipment was described as an ‘entire counterfeit identification lab’ by police. Photographs of seized equipment and cash can be seen above and below.
The two men arrested were 46 year old Rene Jean Moneus, and 24 year old Emanuel Noel, both of Toronto. Moneus was in breach of his probation.
The police said their investigation took three months to execute. It is good to see law enforcement taking active responsibility for protecting the public instead of merely waiting for the private sector to reimburse the losses suffered by customers. Criminals are targeting the nexus of telecoms and banking in order to take control of other people’s accounts. The amounts reported as stolen in this case were not as great as those recorded by other SIM swapping crooks, but the investment that was made in the technology of crime shows there would have been many more victims if the police had not intervened.
The press release from the Halton Regional Police Service can be found here.
