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Police have arrested nine members of an alleged fraud ring for cloning business SIM cards used by bKash and Nagad agents and stealing around Tk 2.5 million from their accounts in Mongla, Bagerhat.
Police also recovered Tk 807,400 in stolen cash, 11 mobile phones and 20 SIM cards from the suspects.
Bagerhat Superintendent of Police Md Jamirul Islam disclosed the information at a press briefing at his office on Tuesday.
He said three business SIM cards belonging to two bKash and Nagad agents at Chila Bazar in Mongla were compromised in a digital fraud. The suspects allegedly used cloned fingerprints to reissue the three SIMs early on June 27 and take control of them.
They subsequently transferred Tk 2,508,680 from the accounts linked to the SIMs through electronic transactions to six different bKash and Nagad numbers, police said.
A case was filed with Mongla Police Station on July 1 under the Cyber Security Act against unidentified suspects.
The following day, police arrested alleged ring leaders Yasin Saudagar and Md Shamim Sheikh from the Mamar Ghat area of Mongla with the help of information technology.
Police recovered Tk 807,400 of the stolen money from Shamim’s mobile phone and later arrested two more suspects in Bagerhat’s Jatrapur and Fakirhat areas. Five others were arrested in Dhaka’s Jatrabari with assistance from the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).
The arrested suspects were identified as Yasin Saudagar, 21; Shamim Sheikh, 27; Rashed Morol, 20; Ehsanul Hasan Rakib, 32; Ferdaus, 21; Ashraful Islam, 26; Mehedi Hasan, 29; Md Nazmul Hasan, 20; and Md Mamun Gazi, 21.
They are residents of different areas of Bagerhat, Patuakhali, Munshiganj and Barguna districts.
Police said forensic examination of nine smartphones, two feature phones and 20 SIM cards seized from the suspects found records of multiple financial transactions and digitally stored fingerprint samples.
Investigators are continuing efforts to arrest other members of the alleged ring and recover the remaining stolen money, police said.