Friday, January 19, 2007

A new work-at-home business that scams everyone!

With the recent raids on Swift by ICE - a lot of people have wondered how much phony identification is out there. The most recent story about this is out of the Toronto area, where a large counterfeiting ring was discovered in a residential neighborhood.

The home based business was producing counterfeit identification, credit cards, government benefit cards and passports. In other words, they were making anything a criminal, illegal alien, or terrorist would desire - right out of a private home.

The City News (Toronto) is reporting:

The hunt began last May when Red Rocket officials put out a notice about phony Metropasses that were being distributed in the city. From there, they began to follow a long and winding road of deception that eventually led cops to a residence in Mississauga.

Armed with a search warrant, they entered the home last December 20th, and discovered illegal equipment - like computers, hot stamp pressers, special inks and more - that allowed suspects to turn out the illegal phonies by the thousands. They also found seemingly endless supplies of the finished products.

They were stunned to see scores of blank cards, OHIP cards, altered driver's licenses, even passport photos arrayed inside the home.

City News story with interesting video, here.

It's no wonder that both Canada and the United States (as well as many others) are having a huge problem with illegal immigration, border security and financial crimes.

Here are some similar stories about the same activity in the United States:

Is Bashing DHS for the Swift Raids Fair?

Mexican Organized Crime Ring is Mass Producing Fake Documents - and Considers Terrorism an American Problem

And the UK seems to have discovered the same problem:

International Identity Theft Ring tied to Bank

Of course, the people doing this don't honor borders, or jurisdictions - which means the proceeds from this problem can "easily travel" and victimize a lot of people.

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