MPs' phone numbers cloned to demand money, Chief Whip warns parliament

Chief Whip of Parliament Nurul Islam Moni has warned members of parliament about a gang of fraudsters who clone mobile phone numbers to extort money. He gave the warning while drawing the attention of MPs at the start of Thursday's session, September 10, citing his own experience.

Nurul Islam Moni said, "I was sitting here yesterday when three MPs called me, asking me to send Tk 50,000, Tk 30,000 and Tk 25,000 urgently. The calls came from three different numbers, all of them from honourable MPs."

He said he tried to contact the owners of the numbers from which the calls came but no one answered. He later learned the phones had been hacked. He called on everyone to be cautious about the matter.

At that time, Deputy Speaker Kaisar Kamal said the state needs to take measures to prevent such fraud by cloning phone numbers. He asked the Chief Whip whether the matter would be brought to the attention of the relevant authorities.

In response, Nurul Islam Moni said he had discussed the matter the previous day. He said he had learned that the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) is taking security measures.