Dhaka: Fraud gangs, including foreigners, are extracting huge money from some naive mobile phone users in Dhaka and elsewhere in Bangladesh promising false offers and impersonating short codes of mobile money transfer windows, especially Bkash.

Talking to news agency UNB, a number of victims said the scammers send masked SMS or make phone calls to mobile phone customers informing them that they have won lottery or an offer, and that they need to pay a certain amount of money to avail of that.

The thugs sometimes tell the subscribers they have mistakenly sent money to their mobile money transfer window wallet begging for returning the amount following certain instructions. Those who act as per the unknown callers' instruction, they will lose the money from their original account.

It sometimes becomes difficult for the customers to distinguish the fake calls and masked SMS and fake short codes as the fraudsters make those using technology.

Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Masudur Rahman said these days they are receiving a large number of complainants in this regard since they launched their mobile apps 'Hello CT' last year.

Local police stations are also receiving such complainants from the victims, he said.

Humayun Kabir, who works with Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC), received a phone call from a mobile number 01738015800 recently when the caller told him that Tk 10,000 was mistakenly transferred to his bKash account and urged him to return the amount.

Shortly afterwards, he received an SMS mentioning that Tk 10,000 was added to his bKash wallet. And instantly, the gangster called him again and wanted to know whether he received the message.

After consultation with his wife, Humayun returned the amount to the mobile number given by the caller only to discover that it was deducted from his balance which was Tk 19,000. As he called the fraudster telling him that the amount was deducted from his original account, he asked Humayun to share his PIN.

The syndicate member withdrew the rest of the amount, Tk 9000, as soon as he shared his PIN with him, thus conning him out of total Tk 19,000.

Aminul Islam, an NGO officer, said he also became victim of such a group and lost Tk 2,000 to the fraudsters.

Shahin Jowad Rahim, an employee of Cosmos Group, also received a phone call last month from a Banglalink number, 01995671814, requesting him to kindly send back Tk 3,060 which was mistakenly credited to his bKash account and subsequently got an SMS. "I checked the message carefully and found that the SMS was sent from blKash instead of bKash. Then I checked my account only to find no money was added to it."

Lutfunnesa, the mother of a journalist, received an SMS in her mobile phone on April 5 which wrote "Your Mobile Number has won 700,000 GBP on IRISH Promo UK 2017 Contact James for Claim. Email irishclaimsdept543@hotmail.com". The SMS was sent from mobile no. 01632774993.

In November last year, Brishti Begum, a resident of Station Road of Jhalakati Sadar upazila, received an SMS in her mobile phone that wrote "Dear customer Congratulation! Your Mobile number won Five Lakh Pound and 51 Inch LED TV from Samsung Lottery. To claim send your name, sex, age, Mobile number and address to....."

As she responded to it, the SMS sender then sent another message requesting Brishti to send Tk 1.60 lakh to an account number of a private bank, claiming it was required for VAT at the customs of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

Lured by the SMS, Brishti first sent Tk 80,000 through Al-Arafah Islami Bank Limited's Barisal branch on November 21and then Tk 80,000 through Uttara Bank Limited's Uttara branch on November23 last year.

As Brishti went to the airport as per the directive in the SMS to bring the parcel, she was informed that there was no such consignment in her name. She understood that she was cheated and informed it to Rab-4 battalion headquarters.

After investigation, the elite force arrested three people, including two Nigerian nationals, from Sony Cinema Hall area of Mirpur-2 on December 4. Later, they arrested four more Nigerians from Dakkhinkhan and another Nigerian from Pallabi area on December 6.

Contacted, Alimuzzaman, Deputy Commissioner of Cyber Crime under DMP's Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit, said they are taking action against those frauds involved in such crimes. "Awareness among people is a must to check such deceitful activities."

Md Azharul Islam Mukul, Assistant Commissioner (Mobile Finance Security-MFS) under the Cyber Crime Division, said they can detect the frauds in 60-70 percent cases after investigation.

In many cases, he said, a large number of victims show reluctance to file cases after falling prey to such frauds.