Toronto police have made numerous arrests and laid over 100 charges in a SIM swap fraud investigation known as Project Disrupt.
A SIM swap scam is a form of account takeover fraud targeting two-factor authentication, police said in a press release on Thursday.
Toronto police’s financial crimes and cyber centre units began the investigation in June after instances of alleged fraud were reported by multiple telecommunications companies.
In the scheme, individuals break into a victim’s cell phone by switching the SIM card associated with it; this does not involve physically taking the victims sim cards and putting them into another phone.
According to police, suspects obtain access to the victims’ phones by collecting information about them through online research and phishing techniques, such as false web links and websites.
They then use the information to create fraudulent identification, clear security checks and convince telecommunications companies either at cell phone stores or over the phone that they are the customer they are targeting.
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The perpetrators then tell the victim’s cell phone provider to transfer the phone number of the victim to a SIM card in their possession.
“Once they have access to the account, they are able to receive any emails or texts sent in relation to password recovery or changes and thus access and compromise any other accounts associated with the victim, such as online banking and social media accounts,” police explained.
Oftentimes, the perpetrators also ordered new cell phones which were then charged to the compromised accounts, police said.
Ten suspects have been arrested in connection with the investigation so far, and police have laid 108 charges, including Fraud Over $5000, Intercept Private Communication, Fraudulently Obtain Computer Service, Mischief to Computer Data, among others.
Two suspects are still wanted by police, Toronto residents Nadia Campitelli and Hervine Umutijima.
To date, Toronto police has executed multiple search warrants and recovered over 400 fraudulent IDs.
Police reported a combined loss of over one million dollars to victims, cell phone companies, and financial institutions, and 1,500 compromised cellular accounts.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-7300, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), or at www.222tips.com.
