Criminals used unregistered SIM to steal money from bKash account in Chittagong: BTRC

Criminals in Chittagong have stolen money from a subscriber’s mobile banking account using a mobile phone SIM card that lacked biometric details, though the user claimed it was registered under the new process, says the BTRC.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 25 May 2016, 06:02 PM
Updated : 25 May 2016, 06:03 PM

Director General (Systems and Services) Brig Gen Md Emdad ul Bari made the disclosure on Wednesday at a programme in which the telecom regulator introduced a new short code, ‘2872’.

Mobile phone users across Bangladesh can call this number to lodge complaints regarding anything concerning the ongoing biometric registration process.

A woman from Chittagong’s Satkania had recently alleged that someone had withdrawn Tk 20,400 by using her Robi SIM, which was registered biometrically in her name and was meant for her bKash account transactions.

The woman, Nurunnahar, told police that her SIM was deactivated on Apr 21 without prior notice. When she enquired at Robi’s Satkania service centre, she was told that ‘someone else had collected it’.

She collected the SIM again and found her bKash account money was gone.

Emdad ul Bari claimed, “The SIM of the subscriber (Nurunnahar) who lodged the complaint was not registered with biometric details.”

However, following her complaint with Satkania police, law enforcers arrested two men named Kutub Uddin and Md Farhad.

Police said they had tracked them with the help of their National Identity Card numbers they had given at the time of recollecting the SIMs.

Kutub and Farhad are former bKash agents and used to work in a SIM distribution agency, police said.

BTRC DG Bari on Wednesday said mobile phone operator Robi was not responsible for this fraud.

“bKash gives their subscribers the PINs needed to operate their accounts. The mobile phone service providers have nothing to do with this.”

“Transactions are impossible without the PINs. These agents managed to access the PINs because of the subscriber’s lack of awareness and recollected the SIM later.”

Under the existing rules, bKash services remain inaccessible for 48 hours if a SIM is replaced or recollected to give the bKash service providers to register the number.

“We think this (fraud) was not possible without any assistance from bKash,” Bari said.

He said the biometric registration process had helped to catch the two fraudsters in Chittagong.

“The agent who reregistered the SIM was caught easily after verifying the fingerprints, as the SIM was registered with biometric details.”