Cross-Border Enforcement Action Helping Businesses and Consumers

Toronto Strategic Partnership releases report highlighting accomplishments

TORONTO, January 15, 2008 — Since its inception in 2000, the Toronto Strategic Partnership has demonstrated its effectiveness in combating deceptive telemarketing and other fraudulent scams that transcend borders. To highlight its achievements, the partnership has released a report entitled Accomplishments of the Toronto Strategic Partnership.

The Competition Bureau is proud to be a member of this partnership, along with the Toronto Police Service, the Ontario Ministry of Government and Consumer Services, the Ontario Provincial Police, the RCMP, the United States Federal Trade Commission, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the United Kingdom's Office of Fair Trading.

Since the creation of the partnership, 37 significant cases have been brought by partnership members against large fraudulent enterprises. The Bureau has been the lead criminal investigation agency in eight of these cases, which involved bogus cancer treatments, credit card offers, business directories, office toner cartridges, and discounts on prescription drugs and medical services.

In Canada, 656 people were arrested and charged and 515 search warrants were executed. In the U.S., 15 criminal cases were brought and 17 people were convicted of criminal charges.

In April 1997, the Canadian and American governments established a Canada-U.S. Working Group on Telemarketing Fraud and directed it to prepare a report on ways to counter the serious and growing problem of deceptive cross-border telemarketing. One of the group's recommendations was to create the Toronto Strategic Partnership.

The Competition Bureau is an independent law enforcement agency. We contribute to the prosperity of Canadians by protecting and promoting competitive markets and enabling informed consumer choice.

The report can be found at: http://www.ftc.gov/os/2008/01/080114canada.pdf

For media enquiries, please contact:

Pamela Wong
Communications Advisor
Competition Bureau
819-953-7734

For general enquiries, please contact:

Information Centre
819-997-4282
Toll free: 1-800-348-5358
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compbureau@cb-bc.gc.ca