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Criminals have allegedly cloned the official mobile phone SIM cards of the deputy commissioners of Netrokona, Meherpur and Jashore districts in a bid to extort people.
Published : 10 Feb 2022, 05:58 PM
The authorities have filed general diaries over the incident and urged everyone to remain cautious through a Facebook post.
On Monday, some people received phone calls from numbers the same as the official numbers of those three deputy commissioners, asking for bribes.
An emergency notice was posted on the official Facebook page of the Netrokona district administration on Tuesday.
“A gang of fraudsters have cloned the official and personal mobile phone numbers of the Netrokona deputy commissioner and using those to ask people for money. They are also disseminating false propaganda,” the Facebook page said, warning all against speaking with the scammers.
After cloning the mobile phone numbers, the fraudsters asked one person to send them money through bKash, said Netrokona Deputy Commissioner Kazi Md Abdur Rahman. The police superintendent and the BTRC were immediately informed about the issue, and the cloned SIMs were made inactive.
Netrokona Superintendent of Police Akbar Ali Munshi said the police were working to identify the gang that cloned the SIMs. “We’re trying to find them using the clues from the bKash number they mentioned for transferring the amount.”
The SP said he hoped to identify the gang soon and bring them to justice. He urged everyone to inform the police if any scammer asks them to pay money.
Jashore Deputy Commissioner Tamijul Islam Khan said his phone number had also been ‘cloned’. He requested public representatives, officials and common people to remain alert.
Jashore DC Tamijul Islam Khan is yet to file a general diary, and said no one has been fooled although the criminals called some government officials using the cloned number.
“Police have been informed about the matter and they are taking the necessary steps.”
In a message posted on the official Facebook page of the deputy commissioner on Monday, the authorities said that a gang has called a few government officials, including upazila executive officers, using the cloned number of the Jashore DC’s official phone.
“Please note that the cloned number looks something like +688 01713411371; that is, the fraudsters use some digit before +88. We urge everyone to be vigilant and not to make any transactions,” the post said.
A general diary has been filed by the Meherpur deputy commissioner’s office over the incident of ‘cloning’ the official mobile phone number of DC Mohammed Monsur Alam Khan and using it for extortion.
On Feb 7, the deputy commissioner’s driver Momin Hossain received a phone call from his official number at 6:45 pm and someone asked the driver to send Tk 2,000 to a bKash account, according to the general diary. Momin sent the amount believing it was his employer.
Monsur Khan confirmed he had not asked for money when the driver called him to make sure he had received the amount.
Some other officials at the DC’s office received the same phone call asking for Tk 2,000.
Police are investing the incident, said the DC.
Shahdara Khan, chief of Meherpur Sadar Police Station, said they will provide details after the investigation is complete.
