Man charged in connection to nearly 100 fraudulent cell phone contracts

Quoc-Tuan Huynh is seen in an undated handout photo. (Edmonton Police Service)

Edmonton police are warning the public about a man charged in connection to nearly 100 fraudulent cell phone contracts.

Quoc-Tuan Huynh, also known as Jimmy, allegedly posed as the owner or authorized representative of a small business and used forged business registration documents to open an account with Telus or Bell.

Police began investigating the fraud allegations in January that occurred across Alberta and B.C.

The 37-year-old man from Chestermere, Alta., then obtained new cell phones on credit, never paying the amount owed, police said.

In more than 97 separate incidents, investigators allege Huynh fraudulently opened 70 business accounts and obtained 143 brand new iPhones worth about $255,469.

Huynh was charged on March 30 with two counts of fraud over $5,000. He was also later charged with two counts of uttering a forged document.

Police are warning the public about the scam as it is impacting small local cell phone retailers.

“We want to warn business owners to be on the lookout for the accused and to make sure they’re verifying customer identification according to their anti-fraud policies,” said Staff Sgt. Marc Dehid in a news release.