The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of police has arrested three online banking fraudsters who embezzled about Tk. 50 lakh from over 100 bank accounts.

The trio were arrested from Dhaka, Faridpur, and Cox’s Bazar.

Confirming the incident, Md Nazmul Islam, additional deputy police commissioner (ADC) of the Cyber Security and Crime Division, said a team, led by assistant commissioner (AC) Dhruba Joetirmoya Gope, had arrested the head of the gang, Mamun Talukder, from Cox’s Bazar hotel around 5am on Friday.

During the drive, Mamun’s two associates—Raju Farazi and Md Mithu Mridha—were arrested, respectively, from Dhaka’s Jatrabari area around 7:05pm and Faridpur’s Bhanga area around 5:15am on Saturday. The law enforcers also seized an Axio car, seven mobile phones with special applications, several falsely-registered SIM cards, and numbers of bank, bKash, Nagad, and Skrill accounts from them.

A case has been filed with Dhanmondi police station in this connection.

During primary interrogation, the arrestees confessed to their crimes. The law enforcers have already produced them before the court with a four-day remand prayer, said Najmul Islam.

The CTTC official said the fraudsters used to fleece ATM card users to know their CVV (card verification value) numbers and OTP (one-time password) of mobile phones.

For several months, the gang used the dialer app to spoof the mobile number of the bank’s head office card division and collect the names, card numbers, and mobile numbers of new card users by calling the branch managers in a well-mannered way.

“The fraudsters then called customers by posing as customer care executives. They told each customer to activate their new cards or fix something else. The gang then strategically collected the customer’s card term, 5/1 digit CVV code, and OTP sent to mobile phones through the spoofed mobile call. Next, they transferred money from the customer’s account to their Skrill, bKash, or Nagad accounts,” explained Najmul Islam.

Of late, hundreds of customers lost almost Tk. 50 lakh from their accounts in several banks. Some of the banks concerned lodged complaints to Cyber security and Crime Division deputy commissioner AFM Al Kibria. Accordingly, the CTTC informed the matter to Bangladesh Bank and finally managed to identify the gang after tracking over one lakh mobile numbers in Dhaka, Faridpur, and Cox’s Bazar.