The POS machine fraud investigation continues to grow.
During the course of the investigation two search warrants have been executed, one at the Grand Pacific and the other on the Mercedes vehicle which was seized. A total of four POS machines were recovered and investigators have now been able to confirm that three of them are stolen.
Two of the stolen machines were found to be from Calgary. It appears that they had been in grocery outlets. A third one was found to be from a Sushi restaurant in the Guildford Town Centre. Many of the compromised cards being used were numbers obtained by swapping the stolen machines at those locations.
More search warrants are expected in coming days. Evidence recovered is still being processed by forensic technicians for evidence, including both data and physical evidence.
Fraudulent purchases have occurred throughout the Victoria area but are largely centered in the downtown core. Locations include the Bay Centre, the Cactus Club, the Grand Pacific and Strathcona hotels.
Of note, one of the servers at a downtown location was tipped $180.00 on a compromised card.
12-4721