Innocent people are lured in with the promise of a job in Europe by human traffickers. This time, the frauds attempted to gain people's confidence by giving them a chance to verify the job offer letters and visas of Ireland, but that plan backfired as the Police Bureau of Investigation caught the trafficking racket.

The deal is of Tk 7.50 lakh for each job seeker. The human trafficking racket makes a fake website of the company to verify the job offer letter. Their first trick was successful, but when the job seekers approached the concerned embassy for visa verification, the scam was exposed.

PBI arrested three members of such a human trafficking gang over visa and documents fraudulence from the capital's Motijheel and Gulshan areas on Wednesday.

PBI Chief Banaj Kumar Majumder, also deputy inspector general of police, said this at a press briefing at its headquarters in Dhanmondi yesterday.

The arrestees are: Shahin Hasan (49), Tarek Mahmud Galib (28), and Bokul Hossain alias Ratan Hawlader (48). Another accused Mizan alias Shahed Siddique is still on the run.

The PBI chief said this time the victim is a journalist -- Mohammad Ali Chowdhury -- of The Holy Times, who along with his seven relatives, fell victim to fraudulence.

In September last year, they made a deal of Tk 7.50 lakh with each of the eight jobseekers to enter Ireland with employment visa.

As per the deal, they first gave Tk 5.35 lakh and handed over their passports for visa processing and job letters, said Banaj Kumar.

In the first week of January, one of the accused, Bokul, sent the job offer letters to Ali and asked him to verify those if there is any confusion.

Ali verified it with the company's website and deemed it genuine.

"Actually, it's a fake website made by the fraudsters. Such company doesn't exist," the PBI Chief said.

On January 19, Bokul sent a visa approval list and visa copy to Ali's WhatsApp. It showed that one of them got approval for a study visa.

"Ali told Bokul that they wanted employment visa… so why did they issue study visa? Bokul told him that they can change it again and it will not be a problem," explained the PBI Chief.

"Ali then instantly wrote to Ireland Embassy in New Delhi, India through email. In reply the embassy said these visas are not genuine," Banaj Kumar said, adding that the fraudsters could not think that Ali would go to such lengths to verify the visa.

Ali then filed a case over human trafficking and fraudulence with Hatirjheel Police Station.

PBI arrested Shahin and Bokul near Dutch Bangla Bank in Motijheel while Galib was picked up at Gulshan area.

Raiding Shahed's office in Banani, they seized 13 passports including the victims' ones along with two laptops, cheque books, seals, fake job offer letters, police clearance forms and bio-data of the job-seekers.

The PBI Chief said they are trying to arrest Shahed.