Peel Police honoured for cracking taxi debit card fraud scheme

The culmination of Project Switch, which led to the arrest of five people involved in a taxi payment fraud scheme, has netted a team of Peel Police officers an international award.

Project Switch had people posing as legitimate taxi drivers who would use a payment machine to capture a victim’s PIN number. Once the number was captured using the rigged terminal, a fake debit card would be switched with the real one and returned to the customer. Then the scammers, armed with the real card and pin number, would deplete the victim’s bank account.

Between January of 2019 and March of 2020, police believe over 200 people were defrauded of more than $2.1 million.
The arrest of the five people brought 48 criminal charges.

At a recent presentation, the Peel Police officers involved were awarded the International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators-Investigative Partnership of the Year Award 2020 for their exemplary work.

The lead investigators of the project are both members of Peel’s Fraud Bureau Credit Card and Organized Crime Team.
Project Switch involved a collaborative investigative effort between Peel Regional Police, Toronto Police and various financial companies.