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By Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police(DMP) in Bangladesh has arrested 11 Nigerians for their involvement in a Facebook scam.
An online Bangladeshi newspaper, bdnews24, reported that the Nigerians were arrested along with one Bangladeshi for obtaining money from people under the false pretence of exchanging their Bangladeshi Taka into US dollar.
The police, in a media briefing on Thursday, said the suspects were arrested in separate operations in Dhaka, the country’s capital city, on Wednesday.
Their Bangladeshi accomplice, Chadni Akter, reportedly concealed her identity and pretended to be a customs official.
An additional commissioner at the Detective Branch of the DMP, AKM Hafiz Akter, was quoted to have said the leaders of the fraud ring are Osita Okechukwu and Chisom Emmanuel.
“They used to maintain communication with their Bangladeshi accomplices and distribute the embezzled money among other members of the gang.
“The other members of the gang swindled people out of huge amounts of money with promises of expensive gifts and investment after developing a virtual friendship with fake Facebook ID as an American or European citizen,” Akter said.
Some of the items recovered from the arrested suspects include a dollar ‘trick’ machine, 17 phones, two laptops, chemical bottles and copies of warrants of different cases.
According to Akter, a number of Bangladeshi citizens, apart from Chadni, were also involved with the gang, adding that legal action had been taken against the apprehended suspects.
