Police on Tuesday arrested two people, including a Turkish citizen, for their suspected involvement with an international ATM card cloning ring in Dhaka.
"A team from Dhaka Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) Unit’s National Crime department conducted a special drive and nabbed the two scammers from Gulshan-1 area of Dhaka," CTTC Chief Md Asaduzzaman told the reporter in a press briefing at DMP Media Centre on Wednesday.
The two arrestees were identified as 55-year-old Turkish citizen Hakan Zanburkan and Md Mofiul Islam.
During the arrest, police also recovered 5 phones, 1 laptop, 15 clone cards and 17 cards in total were seized during the drive.
Police also said Hakan had previously fled from police custody in India.
Hakan is a notable mastermind of the international ATM card cloning scamming ring and attempted to take money from several Eastern Bank Limited ATM booths using multiple clone cards from various countries from January 2 to January 4, 2022.
However, he failed to do so as the bank in question uses anti-scamming technology and the bank authority was notified of the scammer’s attempt through an alarm system.
After primary interrogation, it was found that Hakan Zanburkan came to Bangladesh in December 31, 2021, and checked in at The Capital hotel in Paltan area of Dhaka. Till now, he made at least 84 attempts to use clone cards to take money from ATM booths.
Interrogation also revealed that Hakan along with one more Turkish citizen and two Bangladeshis were arrested in an ATM scam case filed in India’s Assam state in 2019.
The individuals arrested in that case allegedly took out nearly 10 lakh rupees from various ATM booths in India.
After spending about 20 months in jail, Hakan was taken to Agartala’s Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital for treatment, from where he escaped police custody.
Later, he reached Nepal through Sikkim with the help of an Indian man in exchange for two lakh rupees. From there, he collected travel documents, went back to his own country, and made a new passport.
Other than Hakan, several citizens from Bangladesh, Turkey, Bulgaria, Mexico, India and other countries are involved in the scam ring.
A case was filed under the Digital Security Act against the arrested individuals in Dhaka’s Paltan police station.
