Major Toronto ATM fraud scam broken

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TORONTO, June 19 (UPI) -- Police arrested eight people in and around Toronto and charged them with running a multi-million-dollar bank machine fraud and theft ring.

The suspects face more than 100 charges following a six-week investigation prompted by complaints from unidentified banks about "heavy fraudulent activity" at automatic teller machines, the Toronto Sun reported Thursday.

"This particular gang, they were very sophisticated and very adept at what they were doing," Inspector Steve Harris, of the Toronto Police Fraud Squad, told reporters.

Toronto police and officers from five other departments and the Canada Border Services Agency executed 27 search warrants in the raids Wednesday. They seized $120,000 in cash, more than 40 computers, various sophisticated card-making tools and two-way radios, police said.

Harris said pinhole cameras were installed for brief periods of time at scores of high-traffic bank ATMs to capture video of customers as they entered their PIN numbers to begin transactions and a skimmer also captured the card information, the report said.