Alexander Popov - Aka World Wide Cruises Limited
Event Date: March 24, 2005
Cruise Bruise: Fraud
Age: 35
Home Town: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Details:
On Thursday, March 24, 2005, members of the Toronto Strategic partnership in Deceptive Telemarketing arrested a man for allegedly defrauding 124 Ontario residents of $120,000.
The Toronto Strategic Partnership is a multi-law enforcement agency response to Mass Marketing Fraud. It consists of the Toronto Police Service Fraud Squad, OPP anti-rackets, PhoneBusters, York Regional Police Service, RCMP, Competition Bureau of Canada, Ministry of Consumer and Business Services, U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
On Friday, September 17, 2004, police began an investigation into fraud allegations made by 124 Ontario residents who paid to apply for a job on a cruise ship.
It is alleged that:
- all the complainants applied in person during the period from Friday, August 6, 2004 to Friday, September 17, 2004 for jobs at World Wide Cruises Limited, 120 Front Street East, Suite 201, in Toronto.
- the advertisement for hospitality jobs in their cruise line was posted on the web site www.workopolis.ca on Saturday, August 21, 2004, in the Toronto Star in August and in the Employment News in August.
- each of the complainants was interviewed and told that the hiring process involved a series of steps.
-Alexander Popov had four other unknown people perform the three-step interview process. The first step was to pay $1040 that would go towards an application fee, American work visa, health insurance and a ticket to Belgium for training.
- the complainants realized something was wrong and attempted to get a refund. None of the 124 complainants received a refund
- the victims then filed their complaints about World Wide Cruises Limited with the Toronto Police Service, PhoneBusters (an International Fraud Reporting Centre and a statistical gathering unit of the Ontario Provincial Police and RCMP), the Competition Bureau of Canada and Moneris-Solutions Incorporated.
Alexander Popov
AKA World Wide Cruises Limited
Arrested For Fraud - Cruise Job Hiring Scam
