5 men arrested in $180K TTC Metropass fraud

Toronto police have arrested five men accused of using fake debit cards to purchase legitimate TTC Metropasses.

The losses amounted to about $180,000, police said Tuesday. The TTC didn’t lose any money.

The investigation, dubbed Project Rocket, began in June. The men were arrested on Thursday, four of them at a subway stop.

“This significant arrest was the result of private industry, corporations and the police working together,” Staff Insp. Bryce Evans said at a news conference Tuesday.

“Earlier this year, we became aware of large numbers of fraudulent debit transactions in our stations,” TTC Staff Sgt. Mark Russell explained at the news conference.

“We teamed up with Interac and our service provider. Based on their information, we were able to obtain video images of the suspects,” he said.

Police allege they found 168 counterfeit debit cards and 29 fraudulently obtained TTC monthly passes when they arrested the men.  

A search warrant at a home near Parklawn Road and Lake Shore Boulevard West turned up even more counterfeit debit cards, police allege.

Officers say they also found numerous stolen point-of-sale terminals, tools and electronics altered or intended for the specific use of compromising point of sale terminals, credit card reader-writers and accompanying computers used to write skimmed-card data to counterfeit debit cards, four computers and multiple external devices

Umasangar Ramasamy, 33, Jigme Lhundup, 23, Tenzin Namsal, 24, Tenzin Delek, 28, and Tsering Choden, 26, appeared in court on Tuesday.  Police allege Ramasamy was the “ringleader.”

Lhundup previously acted as a bail surety for Ramasamy when he faced previous, similar charges. That “is a problem for us,” police said.

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