Police have arrested four individuals, including two Nigerian citizens, from Dhaka and Jessore, for their alleged involvement in embezzlement of money through social media.
In Dhaka, the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit’s cybercrime department arrested two Nigerians and a local woman from Basundhara Residential Area on Wednesday.
The arrestees have been identified as Albert Ikechukwu alias Eze, 31, Okechukwu Christian alias Chukwama, 28, and Nupur Khatun, 23.
Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Md Nazmul Islam of DMP's Cyber Security and Crime Division confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune.
“We recovered multiple mobile phones, laptops and several bank slips from their possession. We also collected digital evidence of their fraudulent activities,” he said.
According to the police, the suspects used to make friends with people with fake Facebook IDs disguised as rich foreigners. After becoming friends with their victims, the suspects used to offer expensive gifts from fake social media accounts.
Later the victims were given airline booking documents with a list of expensive gift items through Facebook messenger.
The victims were then told that the gift boxes contained millions of dollars’ worth of goods. They were asked to receive the goods from the airport.
“The local female member of this ring used to act as a customs officer and scared the victims by saying that complications would arise if they did not receive the gifts. Then the suspects used to pressurize the victims into handing over a certain amount of money to obtain customs clearance.
“These people have swindled people out of crores of taka in the past two years. A case has been filed with Pallabi police station in this regard,” ADC Nazmul added.
Meanwhile, in Jessore, officials of the Criminal Investigation Department’s (CID) Cyber Police arrested Amjad Hossain Kiran, 44, on charges of swindling people online.
“Kiran used to target people doing business in the country’s remote areas,” said CID’s Cyber Police Special Superintendent Rezaul Masud at a press briefing on Thursday.
“The arrestee has confessed to his crimes and also mentioned the names of several others involved with him during primary interrogation. We are working to arrest them,” he added.
“Amjad used to give posts on Facebook pages that he was interested in taking dealerships to have his business grow and later when someone approached him, he ordered bulks of certain goods.
“But later after receiving the products he would not pay the bill and cut off all communication with the victims,” he said.
Rezaul urged everyone to report such activities to CID’s Cyber Police.
