Established in January
of 1993, PhoneBusters is a national anti-fraud call centre
jointly operated by the Ontario Provincial Police and the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police. PhoneBusters plays a key role
in educating the public about specific fraudulent telemarketing
pitches. The call centre also plays a vital role in the collection
and dissemination of victim evidence, statistics, documentation
and tape recordings which are made available to outside law
enforcement agencies.
The original mandate
of PhoneBusters was to prosecute key individuals in Ontario
and Quebec involved in telemarketing fraud under the Criminal
Code of Canada. Our mandate now also includes facilitating
prosecution by United States agencies through extradition,
and by the Competition Bureau under the Competition Act.
PhoneBusters is the central agency in Canada that collects
information on telemarketing, advanced fee fraud letters (Nigerian
letters) and identity theft complaints. The information is
disseminated to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.
The data collected at PhoneBusters is a valuable tool in evaluating
the effects of various types of fraud on the public. It also
helps to prevent future similar crimes from taking place.
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