Mobile money stolen

Shemul Parvez :

A criminal gang has embezzled around Tk 3.5 crore by changing the ownership of postpaid SIMs and increasing the credit limit entering the internal database of the country’s leading private mobile operator Grameenphone.
After arresting four members of the gang, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police said that they were employees of two companies contracted as third parties to run Grameenphone’s call center.
CID has found the evidence of involvement of a few more members in this cycle.
Earlier, on January 1, the authorities filed a case with Dhaka’s Vatara Police Station under the Digital Security Act alleging that a gang had swindled crores of Tk by entering Grameenphone’s database.
Later, CID’s Cyber Investigation Unit was given responsibility to carry out an investigation.
Genix Infosys Limited and Wipro Limited are two third party contractors who were operating Grameenphone call centers.
CID has arrested four employees of the two organizations for being involved in the incident. Two of them have also given confessional statements in the court.
The investigation also revealed that some other employees of these organizations involved in the embezzlement incident. CID Additional IGP Barrister Mahbubur Rahman confirmed the matter to the media saying that in August 2019, the workers of two call center entered the company’s system illegally.
Initially, the credit limit of 16 postpaid SIMs was increased and Tk 13 lakh was transferred.
In October of that year and January of 2020, they increased the limit of 11 more SIMs and embezzled around Tk 72 lakh.
This cycle contracted with Flexiload shopkeepers to withdraw the money.
In addition, they used the money selling different types of minutes and internet packages, CID officials added.
The matter came to authorities notice when the transaction money was not deposited in Grameenphone’s bank account. Realizing the fraud, the company however, confiscated the SIM limit money.
But, the cycle took crores of Tk before taking initiatives.
The CID is trying to arrest the remaining members of the gang. According to the CID sources, the gang manipulated at least 50 post-paid SIMs to continue the crime.