Con woman held with 2 cohorts
If your loved ones live abroad, beware.
You may be the next target of fraudsters who trick people by posing as an acquaintance of their relatives abroad, win their trust by providing detailed information and then finally rob them of a hefty amount of cash and ornaments.
Three members of such a gang, including a woman, were arrested on Friday at Mirpur in the capital.
The woman, donning sunglasses with a scarf around her head, would arrive at her victim's home in a car. Appearing all agreeable and well off, she would introduce herself as a neighbour or wife of a person who is friends with the victim's relative.
To add credibility to her story, she would provide some basic information about the relative abroad, such as their name, profession, and their other relatives.
Her polished conduct often did not raise any alarm, as evident in the incidents that recently came to light.
On June 3, such a fraudster went to a house in Mirpur and told the house owner that she is the wife of her son's friend in London. The owner, an elderly woman, fell for her words.
She claimed to have come to take the woman to her younger brother's wedding and told her to wear a sari and gold ornaments immediately, saying that other invitees were waiting.
When the elderly woman went to change, the fraudster quickly opened the almirah, took out the money in it and a jewelry box and left the place immediately.
When Kazi Zahir, a neighbour of the victim, shared the incident on Facebook, the post went viral and dozens of other victims from different parts of the capital shared similar stories.
On May 16, Salma Begum, a resident of Mohammadpur opened the door to a well-dressed lady. The lady told Salma that her husband was a captain of a ship in which Salma's marine engineer son, based in Singapore, worked.
She said that her husband was downstairs and would be coming up with some fruits. She asked Salma to change. After a while, she urged Salma's daughter, who was in that room, to call her mother. When the daughter went to get Salma, the lady opened the almirah and took off with Tk 7.5 lakh in cash and ornaments.
Sajjadur Rahman, a resident of Kafrul and yet another victim, said that a con woman went to their house on June 8 with some dollars and persuaded his elderly mother to keep the money at their house for some days.
Although his mother initially refused, the woman was very persuasive. Eventually, she made the old woman lead her to their almirah to store the money. As soon as his mother was distracted, the woman took some cash and ornaments from the almirah and fled.
Sajjadur filed a case on June 12 with Kafrul Police Station.
Another victim, a resident of city's Hazaribagh area, who lost gold and cash worth around Tk 8 lakh, had a similar story. The victim filed a general diary with Hazaribagh Police Station in this regard.
Recently such incidents have become all too common in the city.
“How can she know all the information about our relatives? There must be some influential people behind this fraud,” Sajjadur said.
They target the people whose near ones stay in the UK, the US or Canada.
With the information, they create a story to trap the victims.
On March 17, blogger and lawyer Nijhoom Majumder, currently living in the UK, updated a status on his Facebook about such a con woman.
The woman went to his house in Dhaka and told his mother that she was a fan of Nijhoom's write ups. Nijhoom was in Dhaka at the time but was out.
She started talking to his mother mentioning Nijhoom's family member's names, convincing Nijhoom's mother to believe her words.
When Nijhoom's mother called him over the phone to come home, the woman sensed trouble and left but not without taking some valuables.
CON WOMAN ARRESTED
A fraud, identified as 26-year-old Sadia Sunny, was arrested by Kafrul police Friday evening in front of the BRTA office in Mirpur, along with two male accomplices.
Police also seized a car they were using.
“We arrested the woman in connection with a fraudulence case,” said Sub-Inspector Shamsur Rahman of Kafrul Police Station who is also the investigation officer of the case.
He said the woman was accused of fraud in Mirpur, Kafrul and in other areas of the city.
Police sent Sadia to a Dhaka court yesterday seeking a 10-day remand for interrogation.
Sajjadur and Salma identified Sadia as the perpetrator of the robbery that took place in their homes.
Police claimed to have found evidence of her involvement in other such incidents.
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