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March 22, 2006
Project COLT:
A Joint United States-Canada Telemarketing Fraud Task Force
Since April 1, 1998, in a joint effort to combat Canada-based criminal fraudulent Telemarketing schemes, ICE special agents and members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), in conjunction with the Sûreté du Québec (Quebec Provincial Police), the Montreal City Police Department, the FBI, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service have been involved in the initiative known as Project COLT.
The focus of Project COLT is to identify, disrupt and dismantle organizations perpetrating these schemes and seize the proceeds of their operations, as well as return money to victims of telemarketing fraud.
These schemes typically involve fraudulent telemarketers identifying themselves as lawyers, customs officials, police officers, or lottery company officials contacting potential victims. The victims are told that they will receive a sum of money varying from thousands to millions of dollars. These funds are most often presented as the result of a lottery win or sometimes as a recovery of fraudulent lottery telemarketing funds. The fraudulent telemarketers then tell the victims that they have to pay certain fees for service charges, federal or provincial taxes, customs duties, handling, insurance or other charges. The victims are told to send the funds via mail, courier, or more commonly by wire transfer companies such as Western Union and Express MoneyGram. False identification is often used to assist with the reception of the funds. The winnings are non-existent and the fraudulent telemarketers merely take advantage of the victims. Most of the perpetrators are very articulate and will often provide a variety of partners in defrauding the victim over several days, increasing the complexity of the scheme.
Since its inception, Project COLT has seized and returned more than $14 million to United States and Canada victims of telemarketing fraud. Furthermore, ICE has initiated numerous complex criminal investigations due to Project COLT efforts, resulting in 26 U.S. Grand Jury indictments and 161 U.S. and Canada-based arrests. In addition, Canadian law enforcement authorities have executed more than 50 search warrants and shut down 44 Western Union branch offices involved in these telemarketing fraud conspiracies. Canada-based telemarketing fraud results in the estimated loss of more than of $700 million a year. These criminal organizations are heavily involved with international and violent organized crime, including the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang, and as such they represent a significant assault on the United States homeland and upon the financial security and livelihood of its citizens.
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