Abandoned in its fight against fraud

Photo Chantal Poirier
Ginette Raymond in front of the photos of the scammer, she was unmasked.

Martin Lavoie

Monday, 12 march, 2018 00:00

UPDATE
Monday, 12 march, 2018 00:00

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The victim of a fraud sentimental by the internet, a Quebec is struggling for more than two years, without success, to persuade the police to transfer his case to the authorities of the Ivory Coast who are ready to investigate the man she has identified.

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Ginette Raymond is fallen, is fallen, like many others, under the spell of a beautiful-talker to whom it was sent in just 6000 $. His story has this particular in that work force, the Montreal-based is able to identify the scammer. But the obstacles she encountered, for that his file be transferred to the country’s police force reminiscent of the adventures of Asterix in the house that makes crazy.

It is in October 2015 she is contacted by a certain Marcello Lombardini, who describes himself as an established businessman in France. “I ignored his first message, but I recontactée two weeks later,” says one who had never had a computer before his retirement four years earlier.

A certain degree of confidence settles in and the two come to share during more than three hours per day by e-mail Facebook. But a month later, she decides to take a break. “This relationship nonsense was not at all my type. I have always had doubts. I thought nothing of what he was telling me, but it was my great loneliness. And further to my email of the breach, it has made me the response that all women hope to receive. I started to believe it and to tell me why I couldn’t be happy,” adds the lady, who then took over the relationship.

Photo Chantal Poirier

The testament used by the fraudster, with the help of an accomplice who was pretending to his notary.

At the end of November, Marcello Lombardini, who had already received 4000 $ of it, wrote to him to need the $ 2000 extra for going to Mali, in the amount that she pays him. “His lawyer told me that he had had a car accident, that he had used the money for his medical expenses and that he would need more. There I understood everything,” says the one who has stopped paying him money.

“I wanted to die, recognizes Ginette Raymond. The anger kept me alive, and I wanted to fight fiercely for my rights.”

Course abracadabrant

The first thing that Mrs. Raymond made, it is to contact the Canadian anti-fraud Centre (CAFC) on December 1, 2015. “I thought I was making a complaint to the RCMP, but then I realized that my data were collected only for the prevention and statistics.”

It then contacts the computer of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) of his district, Lachine, on the 6th of December. The police officer who responded refused to take the complaint, ” says Ms. Raymond. “She said that I was not obliged to send money and that she would never have done this.”

Photo Chantal Poirier

With the help of an it French, it has managed to localise his scammer.

Ginette Raymond does not remain with arms crossed. To force the overlap, in January 2016, it will eventually identify the scammer. He is 23 years old and lives in Côte-d’ivoire. She contacts him on his account Facebook staff. It also succeeds in the geo-tag, thinking this to be able to help the police.

It is then that things get complicated. The Sûreté du Québec (SQ), who took his complaint, to transfer his file to the POLICE. The SPVM confirmed to have it, before you close it. At the request of the victim, she agrees to the transfer to the RCMP, which for its part claims not to have received it. Ms. Raymond send a reply either to the SPVM, which is said to have sent a second time to the RCMP. It contacts also the embassy of Ivory Coast in Canada.

Meanwhile, Ginette Raymond had communicated with the police of the Ivory Coast, who is willing to investigate. The folder must, however, send the canadian police.

Following a request for information from the Newspaper, the POLICE contacted Ms. Raymond on the 28th of February last, to tell him that the records of scam similar are usually sent to the CAFC, without further investigation, without, however, mention if this was the case for one of his own. At the same time, the communications department of the SPVM told the Journal that the file was sent to the RCMP Montreal and at the CAFC. On 8 march, the RCMP in Montreal said again to Ms. Raymond does not have his file.

“While the police do nothing here, that of the Ivory Coast has been waiting for over a year my folder. It is discouraging”, laments Ms. Raymond.

THE 12 LABORS OF GINETTE RAYMOND

October 15, 2015

Ginette Raymond began a relationship on Facebook with “Marcello Lombardini”.

25 November

She became aware that she was scammed.

1 December

Ms. Raymond will contact the Canadian anti-fraud Centre. The CAFC is processing data, but does not handle complaints.

6 December

A police station Lachine SPVM refuse to take the complaint. The call to his superior does not have suites.

January 2016

Ms. Raymond discovers the identity of the fraudster, a man of 23 years who lives in Côte-d’ivoire.

May 25, 2016

Mrs. Raymond managed to locate his attacker.

3 June

It is a report on the website of the SQ.

6 June

The SQ advised that the folder is transferred to the SPVM.

21 July

The police of the Ivory Coast replied to Mrs Raymond, she’s ready to investigate, but request that the canadian police do follow up on the case.

July

As advised by the country’s police force, Ms. Raymond will contact that country’s embassy in Ottawa. He hangs up the nose. By e-mail, global Business Canada responds to him to contact the CAFC.

October 31,

The SPVM shall notify Ms. Raymond that his case will be analyzed.

2 November

The SPVM will close the file “due to lack of evidence (…) the computer with a subordinate is not good enough to transmit the evidence accompanying the record,” is the answer to Ms. Raymond. It therefore sends directly the evidence missing at the inspector, who tells him that he will forward the file to the RCMP, adding that “to expect nothing”.

December 18,

The RCMP station Westmount) told him not to have any trace of the file, adding that there was no agreement with police with the Ivory Coast and advised him to “share his situation with the CAFC”!

29 December

Ms. Raymond learns that the first head of the SPVM is to retire and that his successor is on sick leave.

February 1, 2017

The SPVM says that the file has been transferred to the RCMP who responded still do not have it, and that it is the Interpol that it should be forwarded.

February 28, 2018

An investigator of the SPVM told Mrs. Raymond that the records of scam similar are usually sent to the CAFC, without further investigation, without, however, mention if this was the case for one of his own. The communications department of the SPVM told the Newspaper that the folder has been sent to the RCMP Montreal and the CFAC.

March 8, 2018

The RCMP Montreal keeps to Mrs. Raymond that she did not record in its possession.

The SPVM does not investigate where the SQ is the fact

Whose responsibility is it to investigate the fraud which has been the victim Ginette Raymond? One thing is for sure, the RCMP, the SPVM and the SQ do not agree on the subject.

Manual Sewing, communications of the SPVM, is formal. Once the complaint has been received, it is at the Montreal office of the RCMP that it must be transferred for the investigation. “In the case of Ms. Raymond, we proceeded as we usually do. We carry only the investigation when scammers are here. This is a file that is difficult to carry out because the crime was committed in a foreign country”

“Generally, we do surveys of the background, not to the unit for a particular person. In Quebec, the RCMP has a federal mandate” for his part, Eric Gasse, spokesman for the Montreal office of the RCMP.

“We told people to go to their local police. They will decide whether or not to have an investigation, if they have the time and the resources to do so. People should also contact the Canadian anti-fraud Centre. It is important. If they collect a lot of information about a fraud, they can open an investigation,” continues Mr. Gasse.

If Ms. Raymond had lived on a territory covered by the Sûreté du Québec, the question would not arise. “If something like that happened, for example, in Drummondville, a patrolman would take the various information to start the investigation”, explains Hugo Fournier, spokesman for the SQ.

Interpol

“Eventually the investigator may seek the support of our team in cyber crime, but the investigation would remain at the post of Drummondville, continued Mr. Fournier. If the investigation is successful, we ask the assistance of Interpol-Ottawa to make the link with the country concerned. If one realizes that the fraud is on a national scale, then we could transfer the investigation, but a fraud is unique, it will remain at the local level.”

Interpol-Ottawa, to which he refers, is in fact an office of the RCMP in the canadian capital. “Interpol-Ottawa is a platform that the canadian police can use to exchange with the police aliens. You can communicate with 194 countries,” says Rock Side, in charge of the operations in this office which has a forty people.

“We still need the police to help us. We never of our offices, ” says Mr. Côté. Our job is to send the information that it receives to the Interpol office of the other country. Our only duty is to analyze the information in order to avoid that it causes problems to a canadian citizen abroad.”

“There is even a police officer with the SPVM with us here. I can’t understand that they don’t understand the process. One of the requests from the SPVM, who goes out almost daily,” notes the representative of Interpol-Ottawa.

“If the POLICE does not investigate, or does not have the skills to do it, why the SQ may not take up the slack? Why should I be punished to live in Montreal?” inquired the Ginette Raymond.