Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has detained 14 men, including 12 foreigners, of a cyber fraud gang involved in swindling money using Facebook.
They were detained from Uttara, Nikunja and Bashundhara in Dhaka between Thursday night and early Friday. RAB also seized a good number of mobile phones, laptops and foreign currencies from the men.
The detainees are Nigerians Aiba, 30, Kasi, 30, Adwin, 35, Emnoar, 33, Kosmods Elkujmuzin Okulizi, 51, Zosoya, 27, Ebrahim, 27, and Besens, 29, Cameroonians Osman, 29, Sanjo, 36, and Ant Prijo, 42, and Congolese Zasonama, 41, and two Bangladeshis Mamun Mokarrom, 38, and Sultan Mahmud, 26.
RAB 1 Commanding Officer (CO) Lt Col Tuhin Mohammad Masud announced the bust at a press briefing yesterday. He also described how the gang had cheated about Tk13 lakh off of two women.
One of the victims, a service holder from Khulna, was befriended by the fraudsters through a fake Facebook profile named Scott Murray. She was later told over the phone by Scott that he had sent her a present by air in a parcel.
On February 3, a man identifying himself as a customs official called the victim and said her parcel had arrived and she would have to pay a duty before receiving it. As per this caller's instructions the victim on February 7 deposited Tk60,000 to a City Bank account, Lt Col Masud said.
Some days later the man called again and informed the woman that they needed two or three days to delivere her parcel. After that she found the phone switched off. Then she inquired at the customs house at Shahjalal International Airport where she was told that they had no such parcel.
CO Masud said the victim then informed RAB, who after an investigation detained two Bangladeshi men from Nikunja area on Thursday night. Based on the information gleaned from those two, RAB carried out drives at Uttara and Bashundhara residential areas detaining 12 foreigners.He said none of the foreigners could show any legal documents.
RAB said another victim, a female doctor working at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, had been defrauded of Tk11,96,600 by these men in the same manner, through a fake Facebook profile named Desmond B Samauel.