The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime Unit (CTTC) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) arrested two members of an international ATM card cloning scam syndicate, including its kingpin, who escaped from Indian police custody.
The arrests were made in a special drive in Gulshan area in the city here on Tuesday.
The arrestees were identified as Hakan Zanburkan and Md Mofiul Islam. A total of 17 cards including 15 clone cards, five mobile phone sets and one laptop were seized from their possessions.
Briefing reporters at DMP media cente on Wednesday, the CTTC Chief Additional Commissioner of the DMP Md Asaduzzaman said that the arrested Hakan is a citizen of Turkey. He is one of the masterminds of the international ATM card cloning scam.
He has been trying to attempt at least 84 times to withdraw money from various booths of Eastern Bank Ltd through cloning credit cards of foreign citizens of 40 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, USA, India, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Austria, Germany, Vietnam, United Kingdom, Canada, Bolivia, Spain, Finland and Norway from January 2 to January 4 this year, the CTTC unit chief added.
Eastern Bank Ltd prevented hacking attempt by hackers as it detected the matter through alarm system by using anti-scamming technology, the CTTC unit chief said.
The top official of the CTTC said Hakan was arrested along with another Turkish national and two Bangladeshis in an ATM scam case at the Paltanbazar police station in the Indian state of Assam in 2019. In the incident, they along with Hakan embezzled around Rs 10 lakh using cloning cards from various ATM booths in India.
Hakan managed to escape from the police custody while taking treatment at GB Pant Hospital (GBP HOSPITAL) in Agartala while undergoing treatment in India for about 20 months. Later, with the help of an Indian man, he reached Nepal via Sikkim paying two lakh rupees. From there, he collected travel documents and return to his home country.
He visited Bangladesh several times before. The last time Hakan came back to Bangladesh was on 31st December 2021. He stayed at The Capital Hotel in the capital.
