They were stealing from the rich to live like the rich.

Police say four fraudsters went on designer shopping sprees at stores such as Gucci, Prada and Louis Vuitton. They stocked the fridges in their Yorkville condominiums with groceries from some of Toronto's priciest supermarkets: Whole Foods and Pusateri's Fine Foods.

They even furnished a business of their own, buying everything from wiring and drywall to laptops and furniture.

And they did it all, plowing through close to $500,000, by installing a scanner at the Elmwood Spa, which recorded credit card numbers and personal data from 216 people, mostly women, over the summer.

The victims had no idea they were targeted. "Nobody remembers all their transactions. And it's the last place you'd think of. It just goes to show that this can be done anywhere," said Det. Const. Todd Hall.

Described on its website as "Canada's favourite urban oasis," the Elmwood has been pampering devoted clients at its Elm St. location, near Yonge and Gerrard Sts., for close to 30 years.

Spa management was also unaware of anything untoward taking place for at least a month after the fraudsters set to work, Elmwood executive manager Marie Picton said yesterday. "We were appalled to find out. You feel violated."

A credit card company contacted the Elmwood in July, Picton said, explaining it had uncovered fraudulent activity.

According to police, the four fraudsters – a husband and wife and another couple – visited the Elmwood in June, close to closing time. Security footage showed that while three of them distracted employees at the desk, one switched the spa's PIN pad device with a dummy look-alike, police said.

Overnight, a special chip was inserted into the real machine, which recorded credit card numbers and personal data. The next morning, the four returned and once again swapped the machines.

They returned to the spa about a month and a half later and stole the PIN pad. It was found, police said, in use at a local pharmacy.

Over the next few months, the financial data stored on the chip was used to create gift cards, credit cards embossed with phony names, even driver's licences to prove their fraudulent identities, police said.

Once the information was harvested, the massive shopping spree began – $484,000 on 1,241 purchases, including electronics, designer clothes and even manicure chairs for a spa business that opened on Danforth Ave. on Feb. 8.

Late last week, police raided Jung Spa and two Yorkville condominiums, seizing $285,000 worth of items, including designer clothes, purses and wallets, massage tables, laptops and a PIN pad overlay.

Police said the case broke by pure happenstance in the summer when a man bought a bike from a downtown store using a fraudulent credit card.

The bike shop owner then turned to Craigslist to find the bike he had sold the man – and arranged to buy it.

Police officers showed up instead and arrested the man.

That investigation lead them to a different group of suspected fraud artists, who in turn were tied to the group accused in the Elmwood case.

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Police believe other businesses may be compromised and that more fraudulent credit cards forged from Elmwood customer data are still in use. There is also, Hall said, a credit card lab that has yet to be uncovered.

Goran Sadic, 44, Filip Djukic, 39, Julia Sung, 25, and Milena Sadic, 41, all of Toronto, face 150 fraud-related charges.