Five Toronto men have been arrested in what police are calling "a sophisticated debit card fraud" that spanned several GTA cities.
Around 6 a.m. on Saturday, witnesses called Durham police after they saw several men running between the TD and CIBC banks at a Thickson Rd. S. and Dundas St. E. plaza in Whitby.
Shortly after arriving at the scene, police received a call from the TD security guard saying that fake debit cards were being used at their ATMs. One man was arrested inside the bank.
While investigating, police also came across four men at a parking lot at a Bank of Montreal at the Whitby Mall across the street.
All men had a large amount of money on them, said police, who also found four blank white cards with BMO data encoded in them.
A makeshift safe and two locking devices were also located in the suspects' vehicle.
Other white plastic cards were found in a garbage can at the TD ATMs along with some cash.
Officers seized a total of $5,980.
Investigators believe the men conspired with other suspects across the GTA to take part in a fraud. It was a coordinated attempt to withdraw money from ATMs using fake cards around the same time.
The debit card data in this case was eventually traced back to a drugstore in Scarborough.
Arrested are Srimaloj Srianandan, Pirathees Subramaniam, Patrick John, all 22, Luxmanan Balakrishnan, 21, and Anton Sooriyakumar, 23.
They are charged with four counts of fraud under $5,000, four counts of unlawful use of credit card data, use of credit cards obtained by crime, conspiracy to commit an indictable offence and possession of proceeds of crime.
Sooriyakumar also faces three additional counts relating to previous incidents.
Courtesy : Thestar.com
Around 6 a.m. on Saturday, witnesses called Durham police after they saw several men running between the TD and CIBC banks at a Thickson Rd. S. and Dundas St. E. plaza in Whitby.
Shortly after arriving at the scene, police received a call from the TD security guard saying that fake debit cards were being used at their ATMs. One man was arrested inside the bank.
While investigating, police also came across four men at a parking lot at a Bank of Montreal at the Whitby Mall across the street.
All men had a large amount of money on them, said police, who also found four blank white cards with BMO data encoded in them.
A makeshift safe and two locking devices were also located in the suspects' vehicle.
Other white plastic cards were found in a garbage can at the TD ATMs along with some cash.
Officers seized a total of $5,980.
Investigators believe the men conspired with other suspects across the GTA to take part in a fraud. It was a coordinated attempt to withdraw money from ATMs using fake cards around the same time.
The debit card data in this case was eventually traced back to a drugstore in Scarborough.
Arrested are Srimaloj Srianandan, Pirathees Subramaniam, Patrick John, all 22, Luxmanan Balakrishnan, 21, and Anton Sooriyakumar, 23.
They are charged with four counts of fraud under $5,000, four counts of unlawful use of credit card data, use of credit cards obtained by crime, conspiracy to commit an indictable offence and possession of proceeds of crime.
Sooriyakumar also faces three additional counts relating to previous incidents.
Courtesy : Thestar.com
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