Court appearances are set for next month for a Lasalle woman and six other people accused of running a telephone scam that netted at least $2.5-million dollars.
The Mounties accuse 41-year old Sonia Abbruzzo and the others of scamming the owners of small businesses into paying bills for online advertising they never purchased.
Investigators say companies across Canada and in the U.S. were threatened with legal trouble and even arrest unless they paid up. The callers posed as lawyers or employees of collection agencies.
La Presse reports that when the Mounties raided Abbruzzo's home they found $50,000 cash, 20 cellphones and a letter of settlement with a business in Manitoba that was scammed out of $2-million dollars.