The Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU) on Monday arrested six from the capital’s Vatara and Mohammadpur area for their alleged involvement with online fraud.
These arrestees are – Turjaul Hossain Turja, 22, Zulhas Hossain alias Shoyon, 30, Monir Hossain, 24, Rasib Biswash, 21, Mahfuz Biswash alias Mahfuz, 27, and Abdul Al Mukit Kawsar, 21.
The law enforcers also seized two laptops, 18 mobile phones and two hard disks used for online fraud during the drive, said ATU’s Police Super (Media and Awareness Wing) Mohammad Aslam Khan.
He added, “We had learned about the fraudsters through ATU online monitoring and tip offs. They had been defrauding people using social media such as Facebook, and EBay phone store, under the guise of selling mobile phones and other products using attractive advertisements.
“On Monday morning, an ATU team carried out a raid in Vatara and arrested five. After getting more information, the team then raided Mohammadpur area and arrested another suspect.”
Aslam continued, “During primary interrogation, the ATU had learned that the members of this fraud racket used to open mobile sales pages on Facebook under different names, and advertised the sale of expensive mobiles at low prices.
“When any potential buyer was attracted by the advertisement and contacted them, they were first asked to pay Tk 500 as booking money. Later, the fraudsters would extort more money by giving various excuses including unlocking the phone. When the public realised their deception, the members of the fraudulent gangs stopped communicating with them.”
This officer also said that they would shut down their Facebook pages for some time and open new Facebook pages under different names to continue the scam. A total of 36 Facebook pages used for fraud were obtained from them.
