The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested the leader of a gang that used to embezzle money from mobile banking users from the capital's Mirpur area. Acting on a tip-off, a team of RAB-3 arrested Sohel Ahmed, 36, hailing from Barishal, from the first floor flat of a five-storey building in Block-C of Mirpur around 10:30pm on Thursday, after conducting a drive there, said Lt Col Rakibul Hasan, commanding officer of RAB-3, at a press briefing at his office in Dhaka yesterday (Friday).

Rakibul also said, Sohel Ahmed used to collect the account numbers of mobile banking users from agents. Later, he cheated the customers through various tricks and collected money from them, he added. The RAB team also seized a large number of mobile SIM cards, Multi SIM Gateway devices, modems, and a laptop from the flat, the officer said.

During preliminary interrogation, Sohel admitted that his gang collected the account numbers of mobile banking users, especially those who used to transact large sums of money, from agents of different mobile banking service providers. Responding to a question on how the gang cheated people, Rakibul said if a customer was dealing with a large amount of money, the agent informed the number and information of the customer to members of the gang.

They then cloned the mobile banking company's number and called the customer, saying: " I am from the mobile banking office. The money you sent or received has gone to the wrong number." By using such fake techniques, customers would be asked to dial different codes or they would send different links with the message. If any customer clicked the link or dialled the number, they embezzled the money by using passwords, the RAB official quoted Sohel as saying. Cloning of SIM cards is a system through which fraudsters make calls using a person’s number. Sohel had been swindling people’s money this way through the mobile banking service since 2017, said RAB’s Commanding Officer.