4 members of ATM card fraud ring arrested
The Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has arrested four members of a gang that defrauded money from MasterCard and Visa ATM card holders by collecting account information.
The arrestees are Md Sohel Mir, Md Nazmul Hossain, Parul and Md Tara Mia.
The Gulshan Zonal Team of the DB arrested them on Friday and Saturday from Dhaka, Faridpur and Savar areas, said Additional Commissioner of Police (Detective) Mohammad Harun-or-Rashid while talking to reporters Saturday (17 September).
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He said that a fraud gang was stealing money by hacking the accounts of ATM card users.
"Several cases were filed with Gulshan, Banani and Hatirjheel police stations in such incidents. Based on intelligence information, the members of this gang were identified," he said.
About the strategy of deceiving adapted by the arrestees. he said, a member of this gang collected the mobile numbers of various card holders and sent them to the arrested Nazmul and Sohel. Sohel and Nazmul, disguised as officers of the card division of various banks including Standard Chartered and BRAC Bank, called the numbers of Visa and MasterCard users to update the information and warned them saying their cards' activities will be suspended for various reasons.
Many cardholders with large account balance panic and do as the fraudsters say, he added.
"They collected the 16-digit account number, the expiry date of the card, the 3-digit security pin number mentioned on the opposite side of the card. Later they sent OTP code to customers. By collecting the sent OTP code, they embezzled money through 'Card to bKash Add Money' option in bKash app," Harun added.
