Toronto Police have announced a sweeping crackdown on Synthetic Identity after a financial institution warned them of the increasing threat in Canada two years ago.

The operation called “Deja Vu” is a first of its kind in Canada and it specifically targeted criminals that use fictitious or stolen PII to create new identities.

680 Unique Synthetic Identities Discovered

According to Detective David Coffey of the Financial Crimes Unit, the perpetrators created 680 unique synthetic that were used to open and create hundreds of bank accounts and credit cards in Ontario.

The fraudulent accounts were then exploited, in some cases with bust-out activity to allow them to exceed the set credit and account limits.

In total, $4 million dollars in losses were incurred by the banks but they believe there are more. The Toronto Police are asking businesses and banks to be on the lookout for suspects that are using these synthetic identities.

Watch The Press Conference Live

Watch the Conference as it unfolds.