MONTREAL - He came armed with a can't-miss investment opportunity but, in the end, the RCMP say the Montreal businessman's alleged mortgage-fraud scheme has cost unsuspecting investors dearly.

The RCMP said Thursday that Robert Manuel Moniz, 37, was being charged with bilking people out of millions in what police allege was an elaborate mortgage scheme similar to one alleged in Calgary.

Moniz, 37, was placed under arrest Thursday and will face 53 charges of fraud, forgery and uttering forged documents on Friday at the Montreal courthouse.

The estimated size of the alleged fraud, currently pegged at more than $5 million, could grow because police say more charges are likely.

Police said they received complaints and found about 100 suspicious transactions. The charges stem from 19 that were more closely scrutinized and the investigation into the other 80 is ongoing. The alleged offences occurred between March 1, 2007, and July 12, 2008.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Cpl. Luc Thibault said investors were promised boosted credit ratings, a few thousand dollars, and a potential quick return in exchange for peddling their identity.

"(Moniz) was using their name and he was falsifying documents to inflate his victims' financial identity," Thibault alleged in an interview.

The modus operandi is similar to a supposed scheme in Calgary, where so-called "straw buyers" were recruited to purchase property for another person in order to conceal the identity of the real purchaser. Those people were then allegedly left in the lurch.

In the Montreal case, the RCMP says the accused used the trumped-up financial credentials to obtain fraudulent mortgages to buy homes in the Greater Montreal area.

Thibault said the documents used included fake income-tax and benefit reports, which led to mortgages which were in some cases substantially higher than the actual value of the property.

Thibault said complaints came from a wide range of victims: individuals, financial institutions, the Government of Canada and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

After a while, the banks would come calling.

"The financial institutions were calling (the presumed victims) and saying, 'You owe us money,"' Thibault said.

"They were calling back the victims because the mortgages were overdue and under their name, and they realized they were held responsible.

"And when (the victims) were trying to sell the house, they realized the houses' resale value was far below the mortgage."

Mortgage fraud has been making headlines with a civil case filed by The Bank of Montreal in Alberta.

It alleges a massive fraud scheme involving dozens of defendants including realtors, lawyers, brokers, appraisers and bank employees which, the bank says, totalled $70 million and cost it $30 million.

The allegations have yet to be proven in court. There have been no criminal charges laid in the Alberta case but, on Thursday, the RCMP announced it would launch a formal investigation.

The Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals said perhaps stricter laws and better data would allow the industry to determine just how big the problem is.

"Mortgage fraud is not a common type of crime but when it does happen, it can be for significant amounts," said Jim Murphy, president and CEO of the CAAMP, in a telephone interview from Toronto.

"Unfortunately what does happen, particularly in the fraud-for-profit, is that it can be very, very sophisticated."

Murphy said there are two types of fraud: fraud-for-shelter, where an individual misrepresents income to qualify for a mortgage.

But fraud-for-profit, which has been in the spotlight recently, is often far more complex.

The association wrote to Justice Minister Rob Nicholson asking for the Criminal Code to be amended to include stiffer laws, but the federal government hasn't shown much interest in updating the code.

"Even though there are few (cases), some of them can be very large," Murphy said.

"We think that's serious, that it necessitates tougher laws."

Data on the impact of mortgage fraud isn't readily available, but a 2007 report prepared by the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada suggested hundreds of millions of dollars are lost every year because of it.

The RCMP said the cases often take place in major urban centres where the housing market is thriving.

Thibault said the RCMP just want people to be vigilant before agreeing to become a nominee or straw buyer, which in itself is not illegal.

"Make sure that everything is legit because in case of failure to repay the loan, you're financially bound to the contract," he said.