It’s just a scam
"Open the packet, put the card around your neck and it will work as a disinfectant."
This is the sales pitch that a group of people, after opening social media pages, made and started selling a card called "Virus Shut Out". They claimed that the "card" will not allow virus or bacteria to come within three feet of the person wearing it.
Taking opportunity of the panic buying phase during the Covid-19 pandemic, they sold this so-called card on digital platforms. Visiting different social media groups, this newspaper found that these cards were selling for Tk 275 to Tk 900.
They claimed that these cards remain active for 30 days after opening the packet, and are able to kill bacteria and viruses "by spreading chlorine-dioxide".
Law enforcers first learned about this during a drive in the capital's Mouchak area on April 20.
One Tipu Sultan was trying to sell the card through a Facebook group called "Gimama".
A mobile court of Dhaka District Administration, led by executive magistrate Mahnaz Hossain Fariba, seized around 50 of these cards and fined Tipu Tk 1 lakh for selling the fake product on online platforms.
"It's nothing but a scam," she said.
Fariba told The Daily Star that at the time, Tipu confessed to selling these cards to some government and private organisations. The card is harmful to public health as it spreads CIO2.
She said CIO2 is mainly used for cleaning medical equipment. If anyone breathes in CIO2, it would harm their lungs.
"We are now once again noticing advertisements on social media for sales of these cards, two months after the drive, which is alarming. We are trying to get information and complaints so that we can take action against those who are selling these cards and cheating people," added the executive magistrate.
Sheikh Muhammad Shamim, assistant commissioner of Ramna Division of Police, who was also present during the operation alongside Fariba, said police learnt about the resurgence of these cards on different online platforms, and cybercrime teams are working to take action against those responsible.
According to reports of different international media, different countries including Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand and the USA already banned the sale of these cards.
Contacted, Prof Dr Mujibur Rahman, head of the medicine department at Dhaka Medical College, said these types of cards are a new technique to fool people as there is no scientific evidence that these cards can disinfect someone's surroundings and keep the virus away.
According to law enforcers, due to rising demand of medical equipment in the market to contain the spread of Covid-19, some unscrupulous people are trying to make easy money by selling different fake products including masks, hand-rubs and sanitisers.
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