Three misguided ‘geniuses’

They have no engineering, or professional degree. One of them completed SSC, while his two accomplices did not continue their education after classes eight and five.

However, they know how to make cellphones  by assembling parts from those of top and expensive brands.

These phones with low-quality parts, in new packaging, are sold in different markets as "unofficial versions" of top brands, or as second-hand phones.

Cyber and Special Crime Division of the police's detective branch yesterday claimed to have arrested three members of such fake phone-making syndicates.

The arrestees are Al Amin Hossain, 24, Md Rasel, 31, and Md Shimul, 19.

Al Amin did not continue his studies after class eight, Rasel after class five and Shimul only completed his SSC.

Harun Or Rashid, additional commissioner (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said, "The syndicate was selling top quality and branded cellphones like Vivo, Oppo, iPhone, Readme, Realme, and Nokia by collecting the motherboard, and low-quality accessories."

Later, they would get new IMEI stickers, put those phones inside a new box, and sell those to different markets, and also through courier services, he said.

The DB chief said, "Even, the real operating systems were used in these fake and duplicate phones."

Regarding the process of collecting the parts, Harun said that they used to buy stolen phone accessories, and also collected low-quality imported parts.

Then these phones were assembled on level seven of Eastern Plaza market, he said.

The DB team has recovered a large quantity of phone parts and accessories from the assembling centre -- including 97 different brands of Vivo handsets, 48 handsets of Oppo, 25 handsets of Redmi, 20 handsets of Mi, 20 iPhone handsets, and various other phone accessories.

"It could be possible to make thousands of phones by using the accessories recovered from the arrestees," added DB chief Harun.

Detectives suggested matching the IMEI numbers with the packets and the cell phones before buying a new one from the market.

Ashrafullah, additional deputy commissioner of DB police, who led the drive to arrest the syndicate, told this newspaper, "We are trying to know how the syndicate managed the operating systems or accessed the software."

"We are also investigating how the IMEI numbers are being used for these phones, ensuring access to Google Drive or iCloud with duplicate accessories," he said.

We did not get the scope to check all the accessories properly, once we complete scanning all the devices then we may be able to clarify the concerns, he added.