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A Chinese national and a Bangladeshi man have been detained in Jashore over allegations of hacking a bank customer’s account and siphoning off Tk 7 lakh through an elaborate fraud scheme, police said on Wednesday.
The suspects were identified as Chinese citizen Chao Shing and Ibrahim, son of Afzal Hossain of the Shankarpur area in Jashore city.
According to police and the victim, the money was allegedly transferred from the hacked account of an Islami Bank customer at a branch in Tongi, Dhaka, to the account of local hardware trader Mithu Majumdar.
The suspects allegedly used deception to obtain a cheque from the trader and later withdrew the money from the bank.
Mithu, owner of Mithu Hardware Store, said a group of men, including a person named Imran, had regularly purchased goods from his shop while identifying themselves as employees of the Jashore IT Park.
He said the Chinese national, Imran and several others visited his shop on Monday and purchased goods worth Tk 46,000. They then transferred Tk 7 lakh to his bank account through a mobile banking application.
The group told him that they needed a cheque in exchange for the amount remaining after the purchase price was deducted. As they were known to him and the Tk 7 lakh deposit appeared in his account, Mithu said he handed over the cheque.
The group later withdrew the money using the cheque and left.
Mithu said the Islami Bank authorities subsequently contacted him and asked him to visit the bank, where he learned that the Tk 7 lakh had allegedly been transferred to his account from the hacked account of a customer at an Islami Bank branch in Tongi.
After discovering the alleged fraud, he filed a general diary with Jashore Kotwali Model Police Station.
The incident initially left the hardware trader facing questions over the fraudulent transaction, he said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Mithu spotted the Chinese national and Ibrahim at another shop on RN Road in Jashore city. With the help of local people, he detained the two and handed them over to police.
Jashore Kotwali Model Police Station Inspector (Investigation) Kazi Babul said the two suspects were in police custody.
He said police had initially identified one of them as a Chinese national, while efforts were underway to verify his full identity and other details.
“A special police team is investigating the case,” the officer said, adding that investigators were trying to identify others involved in the alleged fraud and determine how the bank account was hacked and the money transferred and withdrawn.
Police said the investigation was continuing.