For the Toronto Police Financial Crimes Unit and TTC’s Investigative Services, the phasing-out will also end years of investigations involving counterfeit tokens. “All it takes is sending a Purolator package with 2 TTC tokens to a stamping facility in Guangzhou City, and they’ll duplicate it,” he said. Russell says that the market for counterfeit tokens is widespread, from universities and variety stores to banks and call centers. The undercover sting earlier this month was the latest in a list of investigations dating back to the 1980s, when imported counterfeit tokens began appearing in Toronto. Detective Justyn Humeniuk of the Financial Crimes Unit says that he has been starting to see more cases of counterfeit tokens in recent months, also noting a large number of suspicious ads on websites like Kijiji offering tokens at significant discounts.

Source: National Post May 26, 2016 08:45 UTC