Two Ontario residents were recently arrested by the police on allegations that they engaged in identity theft via online gaming.
The Ontario Provincial Police’s (OPP) Investigation and Enforcement Bureau said the suspects were behind fraudulent activity that took place at several online gaming sites in 2022. Ernesto Rasing, 38, of Toronto, and Elaiza Mae Paculanan, 20, of North York, have now been charged with a litany of crimes.
“Online fraud is not uniquely a sports betting or iGaming problem,” GeoComply director of risk services Danny DiRienzo said in an April report from the geolocation compliance firm. “Recent data shows that cybercrimes were up 50% in 2022 across all forms of e-commerce.”
Details on the Investigation
The investigation of the alleged fraud began in July 2022 and was a combined effort of the OPP and Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO). The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation’s (OLG) contacted police after suspected incidents of identity theft in the regulated online gaming market.
In August 2022, additional suspicions of fraud on an online sports betting site came to light and the investigation was expanded. Officers obtained a search warrant for a home in North York in July of 2023, and seized “multiple electronic devices, fraudulent documents and instruments related to non-gaming criminal offenses,” according to the OPP.
Authorities then charged the two suspects with several crimes on Dec. 21. Both now face the following charges:
- Fraud over $5,000
- Fraud under $5,000
- Use of forged document
- Possession of credit card
- Use of credit card data
- Personation with intent (identity fraud)
- Possession of an identity document
- Instrument for use in copying credit cards
- Possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000
- Identity theft by obtaining or possessing another person’s identity information
The news comes after Canada’s Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) recently warned the gaming and financial industries about the potential for attempted money laundering and other crimes by utilizing iGaming.
FINTRAC reported that online gaming is expected to grow to a $100 billion industry by 2026. Those types of numbers prove enticing for some criminal organizations. Unregulated or unlicensed sites are particularly vulnerable, the report noted.
“Law enforcement agencies have found that organized crime groups can operate or more easily exploit these sites both in Canada and in foreign jurisdictions accessible from Canadian locations.”
The recent Ontario case at least points to the potential that the province’s regulated industry has safeguards in place to protect consumers. Rasing and Paculanan were released after being taken into custody and are now scheduled to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto.
