Six Toronto men face charges in connection with a debit card investigation that police say began Friday morning.
"We believe it's an organized crime syndicate that targeted parts of the city -- within downtown, and within North York as well," Const. Tony Vella of the Toronto Police Service told CTV Toronto.
Police say six men were found trying to use fraudulent debit cards at various banks across the city early Friday morning.
The six men were in arrested at three separate locations.
- Two men were arrested after they allegedly attempted to use fraudulent debit cards at an ATM in the William Kitchen Road and Kennedy Road area just before 6 a.m. Police say the men were in possession of five fraudulent credit cards.
- Eight kilometers away, in the vicinity of Markham Road and Lawrence Avenue East, police say another man used a fraudulent credit card to withdraw $100 from an ATM around 5:45 a.m.
- A third alleged incident involved three other men who police say were near an ATM in the Weston Road and Toryork Drive area. In that case, police say the trio were in possession of six fraudulent credit cards.
Vella said a combination of police intelligence backed up by help from people in the community who noticed suspicious activity led to the arrests.
"And if they weren't arrested, they would have gone on withdrawing money from peoples' accounts," he said.
All six of the accused, between the ages of 19 and 22, were scheduled to appear in court on Friday. Some of the charges they face include:
- conspiracy to commit an indictable offence
- fraudulently possessing credit card data
- use credit card obtained by crime
- possession of proceeds of crime
Some bank customers interviewed by CTV Toronto say they know of friends and family members who have had their accounts hit. One recommended that people monitor their bank accounts closely, while police say you should treat you debit card as carefully as you would cash.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Reshmi Nair
