Project Disrupt: Toronto police arrest 10 people, lay more than 100 charges in SIM swap scam

Toronto police say they have arrested 10 people and laid more than 100 charges in a wide-reaching SIM swap scam.

Investigators say more than 1,500 cellular accounts throughout Canada were compromised, resulting in more than $1 million in combined losses to victims, telecom companies and financial institutions.

Det. David Coffey from the Toronto police Financial Crimes Unit says the SIM swap scam targets a weakness in two-factor authentication to take over an unsuspecting victim’s cellphone account, either by impersonating the customer at a cellphone store or otherwise tricking a mobile carrier into switching the victim’s phone number to another SIM card.

Coffey says police seized more than 400 pieces of fake identification after search warrants were executed as part of the investigation dubbed “Project Disrupt,” which began in June 2023.

Global's Sean O'Shea has the details.

#GlobalNews #Toronto #ProjectDisrupt

[theMoney]

Did the criminals have an inside person working at the one of millions of cellular shops in the GTA, assisting with the scam?

[MikeMarley-rs]

Sue the phone carriers for letting this happen.

[Orpheusftw]

They've probably already bailed themselves out with the money they made _committing crimes._

[kaze-xo]

Finally Toronto police doing something useful, now we seriously need to solve the car theft issue

[kevinn]

These people should be locked up for life!!

[paulcharpentier]

If you lose money because of the negligence of the carriers they should have to replace it in any additional costs

[KP-xibj]

This scam has been going on in the US for some time now. IMHO, cellular carriers should only authenticate someone in person and never over the phone. There's no way to know if someone's account/personal info has been compromised over the phone.

[michellemacewan]

If i was this couple I would lawyer up and take the cell company to court! Unbelievable

[femia]

I'm sure they're out on bail already

[jillclarke]

Blame the phone carriers. Greedy but no help for the consumer

[Pete]

2FA is not the problem, 2FA via SMS is the problem. Horrible authentication method

[keplerf]

Why everyone puts so much trust into technology is mind boggling.

[jakohema]

All banks in Canada all using sms based authentication they really need to change that. Also CRA and service Canada using same method.

[joept]

People at the call centers. Inside job

[iLLwpg]

This is the carrier fault. they should be sued for liability

[onthenextthing]

Huge lawsuit against telecoms. The only way to handle this.

[travispolson]

Physical cash in a safety deposit box . 100% unhackable.

[sabrinac]

Inform the public about the cellular company that allowed this to happen.

[heatherjones]

People should stop buying into the "convenience" of using their phones for everything. If your bank account gets hacked they do nothing, same thing for your phone...no one is responsible or accountable.

[lenworth-yfkb]

it funny how banks, tech companies, phone carriers, have all the money and resources at their disposal, but it's up to the individual citizen who works 40hrs a week just trying to survive to do all these thing to prevent fraud and theft.
The consumer needs to opt out. We are the ones that are letting THEM skirt their responsibility.