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Toronto Police Service
Man
Arrested Following Cruise Ship Employment Fraud
March 24 2005 --
Toronto---On Thursday, March 24, 2005, members of the Toronto
Strategic partnership in Deceptive Telemarketing arrested
a man for allegedly defrauding 124 Ontario residents of $120,000.
The Toronto Strategic
Partnership is a multi-law enforcement agency response to
Mass Marketing Fraud. It consists of the Toronto Police
Service Fraud Squad, OPP anti-rackets, PhoneBusters, York
Regional Police Service, RCMP, Competition Bureau of Canada,
Ministry of Consumer and Business Services, U.S. Federal Trade
Commission and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
On Friday, September
17, 2004, police began an investigation into fraud allegations
made by 124 Ontario residents who paid to apply for a job
on a cruise ship.
It is alleged that:
- all the complainants
applied in person during the period from Friday, August 6,
2004 to Friday, September 17, 2004 for jobs at World Wide
Cruises Limited, 120 Front Street East, Suite 201, in Toronto.
- the advertisement
for hospitality jobs in their cruise line was posted on the
web site www.workopolis.ca on Saturday, August 21, 2004, in
the Toronto Star in August and in the Employment News in August.
- each of the complainants was interviewed
and told that the hiring process involved a series of steps.
-Alexander Popov
had four other unknown people perform the three-step interview
process. The first step was to pay $1040 that would
go towards an application fee, American work visa, health
insurance and a ticket to Belgium for training.
- the complainants
realized something was wrong and attempted to get a refund.
None of the 124 complainants received a refund
- the victims then
filed their complaints about World Wide Cruises Limited with
the Toronto Police Service, PhoneBusters (an International
Fraud Reporting Centre and a statistical gathering unit of
the Ontario Provincial Police and RCMP), the Competition Bureau
of Canada and Moneris-Solutions Incorporated.
- there may be other
victims
Alexander Popov, 35, of Montreal,
Quebec is charged with two counts of Fraud Over $5,000.
He is scheduled to appear in Courtroom 101, Old City Hall,
Monday April 4, 2005, at 10 a.m. for a show cause hearing.
Anyone with information
on this investigation is asked to call Detective Constable
Bart Hendriks or Staff Inspector Tony Crawford at 416-808-7300
or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS (8477).
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