MONTREAL, July 10 (UPI) -- A joint Canadian-U.S. operation targeting telemarketing fraud and identity theft raided 19 businesses in Montreal and resulted in seven arrests, police said.
The 10-year-old Operation Colt sweep Wednesday involved 150 federal, provincial and municipal law enforcement agents, The Gazette newspaper reported.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesman Sgt. Tony D'Angelo told reporters the sweep was narrow in scope.
"There are a multitude of scams out there, but what we targeted involved lottery fraud with fake checks," he said.
D'Angelo said victims would receive a letter saying they had won a lottery, but had to wire a payment of between $2,500 and almost $5,000 to lottery organizers to cover "administrative" costs. Information supplied by victims also set up potential for identity theft, he said.
Those who wired money found their "winning" checks were worthless, he said.
The FBI and the customs and immigration section of the Department of Homeland Security were also involved in the investigation, D'Angelo said, although he wasn't able to say which country had the majority of victims.
