Between January and September 2023, the accused and an accomplice impersonated representatives of financial institutions or law enforcement officers in order to obtain bank cards and their PINs to withdraw funds or massively make various purchases. .
They acted in 29 cities in the province, from La Malbaie to Laval, including Quebec, Berthierville, Victoriaville, Plessisville, Granby, and Sherbrooke.
The targeted victims, 55 in total, are elderly people aged over 50 to 98 years old. According to the summary of facts presented to the court, the average age of the victims is 80 years old.
He targeted “old” first names in cities on the Canada 411 site, according to what was presented in court.
The total value of the fraud is $247,324 while the total losses are nearly $198,000.
In total, the authorities count 53 events in 9 months. It took provincial coordination of 26 police forces in matters of economic crime to catch the two individuals.
“This is an important step taken today in denouncing this phenomenon which specifically attacks vulnerable people in our society. The prosecutor will demand a significant and dissuasive sentence while aiming to compensate the victims and recover criminal assets,” commented the prosecutor for criminal and penal prosecutions, Julien Beauchamp-Laliberté.
The crimes would also have been committed while the accused was benefiting from conditional release in another fraud case.
At times, the suspects carried out their fraud scheme together and at other times, they operated separately. The other individual targeted in this case, Kevin Lelièvre, will be back in court on October 16.
Judge Catherine-Valérie Levasseur of the Court of Quebec ratified the guilty plea of Jean-François Gagnon on Thursday at the Trois-Rivières courthouse. Observations on the sentence will take place later, the accused will remain detained until then.
It must be said that a major operation is underway to counter this stratagem, particularly targeting vulnerable elderly people. Police officers from the Specialized Cybercrime and Financial Crimes Investigation Department of the Sûreté du Québec, in collaboration with the Montreal City Police Service, the Longueuil Agglomeration Police Service and the Toronto Police Service, have carried out, on Thursday, 22 searches in several sectors.
“False representative” fraud is a stratagem which consists of calling a senior on their residential line pretending to be a representative of a financial institution.
During the call, the representative mentions having spotted potential fraud in the victim’s bank account. In order to remedy this situation, the victim must hand over their bank cards as well as the personal identification number (PIN) of their cards to the false representative.
An accomplice comes to the victim’s house to collect the cards. Some fraudsters go to a banking institution to withdraw money from bank accounts, while others make various purchases.
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