When investigating fake bus passes they also found fake driver's licenses, social insurance numbers and health cards. The photo ID had people's pictures on it. Things aren't that much different in some areas of Canada.

http://www.torontosun.com/News/TorontoA ... 2-sun.html

Fri, January 19, 2007

Cops bust 'credit card lab''Motherlode' of forgeries in Peel
By TOM GODFREY, TORONTO SUN

TTC Special Const. Mark Russell holds a real metropass, left, and a fake one. Police say a forgery operation was also dealing in social insurance cards and credit cards. (MICHAEL PEAKE, SUN)

Peel Regional Police smashed one of the largest counterfeit operations they have seen, seizing more than 8,000 blank and complete credit cards and forged Ontario drivers licences, health cards and TTC passes.

A 23-year-old Mississauga man is under arrest in what started off as a TTC probe into high-quality Metropasses being sold in Toronto schools and workplaces.

Detectives seized hundreds of assorted blank cards and dozens of social insurance and forged drivers licences -- many with the photos and names of people affixed.

Officers, who are trying to determine if the people on the licences are real, said it's difficult to estimate a dollar value of the ring since cards were in various stages of completion.

'FOR SALE BY OTHERS'

"This was a credit card laboratory," Insp. Bryan Graham said yesterday at a press conference, where rows of fraudulent cards and machines used to make them were displayed.

"We believe these cards were for sale by others."

TTC Staff-Sgt. Mark Russell said the arrest of a suspect last month stemmed from the seizure of 250 Metropasses in May last year. He said a search warrant was obtained for a Mississauga address, where police found a "motherlode."

SOLD FOR $30

Russell said the phony passes were peddled by others on the black market for $30 each to high school and college students -- on the street and at businesses. Legitimate passes retail for about $100 monthly.

"We only seized a fraction of what is out there," he said.

"It requires pretty specialized equipment to make some of the counterfeits."

Russell alleged the suspect was supplying commuters in the Toronto-area with phony passes for years and may have defrauded the TTC for several hundred thousand dollars.

Acting Det. Brian Wintermute said the forger was ready and willing to adapt his operation to produce any type of identification.

"This is one of the larger counterfeit operations we have seen in the last few years," Wintermute said. "We believe there is more than one person involved."

Police aren't sure who the cards were made for or how much they were sold for on the black market.

"We don't know if this is international in scope," Wintermute said. "With a high volume like this, these cards are going somewhere for sale."

Police said that most of the forgeries are of high quality.

Hassan Jeeva has been charged for eight fraud-related offences.