About 100 people are expected to be arrested Tuesday in a crackdown on an international telemarketing scheme in Montreal, Canada's second largest city, local media reported.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) raided five locations in and around Montreal city to smash the group, which allegedly bilked 1,500 small and medium-sized businesses in Canada, the United States and Europe by posing as representatives of a government agency, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) said in a report.

The companies were charged as much as 10 times the retail value of office equipment including first aid kits, and were threatened when they did not settle their bills, the report quoted RCMP as saying.

Tuesday's raids cap a two-year investigation triggered by complaints from affected businesses, the CBC report said.