Criminal Investigation Department (CID) said on Thursday that four members of a gang involved in swindling money from mobile banking users through cloning SIM cards have been arrested from Dhaka, Jamalpur and Faridpur.

The arrestees have been identified as mobile banking platform bKash’s sacked Distributor Sales Officer (DSOs) Shariar Nafiz alias Milton, Md Ripon Mia, Md Yosuf Miah, and Mahbub Kazi. Of them Mahbub is the said to be the mastermind of the gang.

Nine mobile phone sets and 57 SIM cards were also seized from the possession of the arrestees during the drives on Wednesday, said Md Rezaul Masud, a special superintendent of police at cyber police center of CID at its headquarters in the city.

A bKash agent lodged a complaint to the CID that he received a phone call from the office of bKash DSO asking him to help them update information. He further said that the fraudsters embezzled Tk 10, 7000 through cloning his SIM card after the bKash agent provided them with One Time Password (OTP).

Following the complaint, the CID members in cooperation with the CPC conducted a drive in Jamalpur district and arrested Milton and Ripon on Wednesday, the CID officer said.

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Upon information from the duo, Yousuf and mastermind Mahbub were rounded up from the Dhaka’s Mohammadpur and Faridpur in this connection on the same day, he said.

In the preliminary interrogation, Mahbub confessed to swindling Tk 15 lakh from the mobile banking users through paid version cloning apps for the last three months, the intelligence officer continued.

A case was filed under Digital Security Act at Paltan Police Station in this connection, he added.