Fighting fraud the Canadian Way

Surfing the web is like swimming with sharks. There are scam artists lurking in every shadow, flooding inboxes with bogus requests, phishing for bank account numbers and other personal data. While the fraudsters operate from keyboards in locations around the globe, the Canadian crime fighters trying to shut them down are tucked away in a small office in North Bay. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Call Centre, in the Ministry of Correctional Services building on First Avenue, is the country's hub for collecting information and criminal intelligence on everything from telemarketing and Internet fraud to identity theft. Jointly managed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Ontario Provincial Police and Competition Bureau of Canada, the anti-fraud centre deals with reports involving Canadian content from victims across North America.

But fighting the onslaught is a momentous task that can only be won through public education. That is the No. 1 way to combat this type of fraud," said RCMP Staff Sgt. Paul Proulx, who oversees the operation. The more people who know about fraud, the more they can recognize it." A staff of 24 includes operators who receive complaints and specialists who analyze the information. The centre's role, however, is not to send officers out into the field to make arrests, but rather to identify possible fraud operations and notify the appropriate law enforcement agency. RCMP Cpl. Louis Robertson, who heads up the criminal intelligence unit, has cultivated relationships with agencies around the world, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States, which is under no obligation to co-operate.

Although fraud operations do get shut down as a result of the centre's work, they are often only temporary disruptions." That's why public awareness is such an important weapon. In fact, the centre is planning to launch a public education campaign early next month, complete with a new website at antifraudcentre.ca. The centre receives about 500 e-mails per day from people reporting possible fraud and some 10,000 phone calls each month. And the numbers are growing. Formerly called Project PhoneBusters, the centre was created in 1993 by OPP officer Barry Elliott. At that time, the focus was mainly on telemarketing fraud. But, as Internet technology advanced, the centre evolved along with the scope of the crimes.

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RCMP fear black-market cigarettes could fund terrorism

The black market, cross-country tobacco trade has created an underground economy Canadian authorities fear could be used to finance overseas terrorism, internal RCMP intelligence documents obtained by Canwest News Service show. The materials also indicate RCMP intelligence predicted the expansion of the underground tobacco trade shortly after the federal government shelved plans in the early 1990s to invade several Mohawk reserves. The government chose instead to lower tobacco taxes to undercut the financial incentive for smuggling. The underground tobacco trade now spans the country, with authorities finding Mohawk-made cigarettes from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island, according to an RCMP intelligence analysis from 2008.

Black market tobacco also greases an underground economy in Canada worth hundreds of millions of dollars, supplying money for a range of illegal enterprises that could include terrorism, according to an RCMP Quebec division intelligence report for January and February 2008, obtained under the Access to Information Act “By offering tobacco products at a better price, smugglers stimulate an underground economy within which its profits could be used to finance illegal activities,” said the report. “These activities [include] the smuggling of drugs and firearms, the financing of terrorism, money laundering, among others.” The RCMP claim 105 crime groups are involved, at different levels, in the illegal tobacco trade.

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RCMP's new Synthetic Drug Initiative

The Canadian government recently announced the official launch of the RCMP’s Synthetic Drug Initiative. The Synthetic Drug Initiative, the first Canadian drug strategy to specifically focus on a single class of drugs, is an RCMP-led program designed to eliminate the production and distribution of illegal synthetic drugs in Canada, and reduce the overall influence of organized crime on drug trafficking in Canada.

Canada has been identified as a source country of illegal synthetic drugs with organized crime groups playing a leading role in this expanding trade. These groups continue to profit from chemical diversion, synthetic drug production and the trafficking of these substances. The Synthetic Drug Initiative targets the illicit synthetic drug industry on three fronts; enforcement, deterrence and prevention. It also aims to inhibit the diversion of precursor chemicals from foreign and domestic sources.

“As a component on the National Anti-Drug Strategy, the Synthetic Drug Initiative demonstrates our continued commitment to eradicating the illicit drug trade in Canada,” stated Minister Nicholson. “Our Government recognizes that illegal drugs undermine healthy and safe communities, fuel organized crime and foster street-level gangs. That is why we have implemented the National Anti-Drug Strategy with a view to reducing the supply of and demand for illegal drugs, as well as addressing the crime associated with these drugs.”

This information may be of interest to all drug investigators and intelligence officers assigned to counterdrug operations. Included in the press release are contact details for the RCMP.

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