The Detective Branch (DB) of Gulshan Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has claimed to have arrested four members of a fraud ring for ripping off Mastercard and Visa cardholders by hacking into their accounts.
The arrestees are Md Sohel Mir, Md Nazmul Hossain, Parul and Md Tara Mia.
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On Friday and Saturday, a team of DB Gulshan conducted several raids in Dhaka, Faridpur and Savar and arrested them, Mohammad Harun-or Rasheed, additional commissioner of DMP, said Saturday.
As Visa and Mastercard are being used for electronic payment, shopping and withdrawal of money from ATM booths and mobile recharging, the gang was hacking into the accounts of card users and ripping them off for a long time.
A member of this gang would collect the mobile numbers of cardholders and send them to Nazmul and Sohel, Harun-or Rasheed said.
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Sohel and Nazmul, posing as officers of the card division of various banks, including Standard Chartered and Brac, called the numbers of Visa and MasterCard users. They would tell the cardholders that their information had to be updated immediately or else their cards would be suspended.
Many cardholders with large account balances panicked and did as the fraudsters said, Harun-or Rasheed added.
"Several cases were filed at Gulshan, Banani and Hatirjheel police stations in this regard. Also, efforts are underway to arrest other members of the gang," the additional commissioner said.