Online romance scammer swindling crores from over 50 women arrested

Police have arrested a fraudster who exploited nearly 50 women through social media, enticing them into falling in love with promises of a life in the United States and swindling them out of crores of taka.

The Cyber Crime Investigation Division of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested the man named Md Benazir Hossain, 40, from Khulna on 22 November, officials say.

Despite lacking any apparent source of income, he possesses a duplex house, a luxurious residence, a sprawling fish farm spanning around 20 bigha in various locations within Narail, multi-storey buildings in different parts of the country, including Narail, Jashore, and Savar, and a substantial bank balance.

CTTC Chief Additional Commissioner Md Asaduzaman during a press briefing on Monday said Benazir created a fake Facebook profile named Shahid Hasan (Pilot Officer) by copying the profile of a Bangladeshi pilot living in the USA of the same name.

To make the Facebook profile credible, he regularly posted photos of him flying an aircraft and videos from Shahid Hasan's Facebook profile.

Fraudster Benazir used to target lonely female victims on various Facebook groups and pages, contacting them on Messenger, first tricking them into falling in love, then to lure them with promises of marriage and taking them to the US with their families.

He used to talk to the victims on audio calls but never on video calls on various pretexts. After that, at one stage of the online romance, he would say he was in danger and took lakhs of taka from them using digital financing service Nagad – he had 19 Nagad accounts.

He embezzled more than Tk1 crore in the last four months using 13 Nagad accounts.

Benazir operated the fraud from his home in Narail but withdrew the money at various cash-out points in Jashore and Khulna – 50km away from his home. The SIM card used in these fraud activities and the NID used for registration of the Nagad account were in the name of another person.

Benazir used to wear a cap, sunglasses, and a face mask to hide his identity and face while cashing out.

Two such victims have complained at different times over the past week to the Cyber Crime Investigation Division, so they advised the victims to file a case.

One of the victims filed a fraud case on 21 November at the capital's Wari police station. Later on 22 November, the investigation team identified Benazir Hossain through detailed technical analysis and arrested him in the evening from Fultala, Khulna, when he was cashing out from the Nagad number used for fraud.