Two charged in connection to credit card fraud operation

Calgary police have charged two Quebec residents with several counterfeiting and fraud related offences and seized equipment that could be used to make counterfeit credit cards from a southeast hotel room.

Police were called to a hotel in the 5900 block of Blackfoot Trail S.E. last Wednesday at about 3:00 p.m. for a report that a room was being booked with a fraudulent credit card.

Officers took a male and a female into custody and while making the arrest, noticed a large number of credit cards and credit card blanks in the hotel room.

“This was a very sophisticated and organized crime that was occurring. These two individuals flew into Calgary, we believe for the specific purposes of perpetrating these frauds,” said S/Sgt. Kristie Verheul from the Economic Crimes Unit.

The Economic Crimes Unit (ECU) was called in and found equipment and materials which are known to be used to manufacture counterfeit credit cards.

Officers seized a credit card embosser, a foil tipping machine, a mag strip encoder, over 600 pre-printed blank (un-embossed) credit cards and a computer storing stolen credit card data.

They also confiscated $6,210 in cash, over $6,500 in prepaid gift cards and a number of brand new Apple products.

“They had with them the entire lab, as you see before you, that was available to make identities associated to credit cards that they were also making and from the computer and the Internet, where you can purchase credit card information, they took credit card information and made these false credit cards so the credit card on the front of the credit cards will have a name and a number. The mag stripe data, is something that will associate to the credit card list of the victim’s information that was potentially swiped off of a swiping mechanism, taken from a restaurant, found over the Internet, etc.” said S/Sgt. Verheul.

Philippe Nerin, 22, of Quebec, is charged with one count each of:

Yancee Lemire, 19, of Quebec, is charged with one count each of:

Police are asking anyone who feels they may have been a victim of identity theft or credit card fraud to call them at 403-266-1234, or Crime Stoppers anonymously using any of the following methods:

TALK: 1-800-222-8477

TYPE: www.calgarycrimestoppers.org

TEXT: tttTIPS to 274637