Detectives in Rangpur have arrested three members of an organised visa fraud syndicate accused of swindling job seekers with false promises of overseas employment.
The arrests were made Thursday afternoon during a raid at a rented house in the
CDT Housing Society area of Collegepara under Tajhat Police Station.
Police recovered Bangladeshi
and foreign passports, fake Australian visas, forged job offer letters, airline
tickets, counterfeit identity cards and other materials used in the scam.
The detainees are Ruhanur Rahman, 23, Shafiq Islam, 31, and Himel
Islam, 22.
A case was filed at Tajhat Police Station Thursday night on charges of fraud
and forgery.
Deputy Commissioner (Detective Branch) Sanatan Chakrabarty said
detectives seized 10 Bangladeshi passports with forged Australian visas, two
fake Australian passports, around 30 fabricated employment letters, a laptop,
four mobile phones, and envelopes bearing the name of VFS Global to make the
operation appear legitimate.
He added that the suspects admitted during interrogation to
running the fraud ring for a considerable period.
“They created fake Facebook pages using the name of an Australian company and
lured young job seekers and expatriate families with lucrative employment
offers. Their office was decorated with banners, nameplates and identity cards
carrying the company’s logo,” he said.
The DB official said the group collected passports from
applicants, attached forged visas, and used fake appointment letters to extort
large sums of money. Police are also investigating how many victims were
defrauded and the total amount of money collected, he added.
