Shawdesh Desk:

A number of novel tactics of committing crimes were detected in 2021 as new patterns of crime are emerging with the digital transformation of the society, leaving law enforcers struggling to deal with the offences.

Trafficking of young girls in the name of making them TikTok models, cheating through e-commerce sites, laundering money through live-streaming chatting apps and online microcredit traps are among the new methods of crimes identified by the law enforcers in the immediate past year.

Police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested many people involved in committing such crimes, but the offences could not be controlled.

In May last, the trafficking of women in the name of making them TikTok models came to the fore after a video of sexual assault on a 22-year-old Bangladeshi girl in India proliferated in social media. Several hundred young girls were trafficked to the neighbouring country in such a way.

After the viral video, the law enforcers, particularly RAB, launched drives and arrested over 150 ringleaders and members of a number of gangs, including Kallu-Sohag-Nagin Group and DJ Kamrul-Nurnabi Group.

The elite force identified some ‘safe homes’ in the capital and bordering areas where the victims were kept for trafficking.           Commander Khandaker Al Moin, director (Legal and Media Wing) of the RAB Headquarters, told the Daily Sun that the criminals often change their tactics. “With the advancement of technology and easy use of social media sites, the traffickers have changed their methods of trafficking women. They’re now trafficking women with a promise to make them TikTok models.”

“We’ve arrested the ringleaders and members of a number of gangs involved in the crimes. We’ll always remain vigilant to check the crimes,” he said.

The coronavirus pandemic gave a boom to e-commerce business as people can buy their necessary things in the comfort of their own homes.

But many e-commerce platforms began deceiving customers by not delivering their products even after taking payments in advance.

The matter of fraudulence came to light in the immediate past year and the law enforcement agencies launched raids and arrested many owners and employees of a large number of sites, including Evaly, Dhamaka, Ring ID and SPC World.

Kamrul Ahsan, additional deputy inspector general (Cyber Police Centre) of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), told the Daily Sun that cyber financial crimes saw a rise in 2021. “Laundering money through streaming apps added a new dimension to crimes. Besides, the online gambling increased to a large extent.  Tk 13 crore is being laundered every day through three online gambling sites,” he said.

“Some small e-commerce sites, including Ring ID, embezzled Tk 100-150 crore by deceiving people, which was not seen in previous years,” he said.

Humayun Kabir, special superintendent of police (Financial Crime) of the CID, told the Daily Sun that they filed cases against four e-commerce platforms for laundering huge money embezzled from their customers. “We’re investigating about 15 other platforms on money laundering charges,” he said.

About Tk 2.3 billion was siphoned off through StreamKar, Bigo Live and Likee apps from January to September last year, according to Anti-Terrorism Unit and CID.

Through the apps, a section of men do sexting with young girls having face value in exchange for a handsome amount of money, said Md Mahiduzzaman, SP (Cyber Crime) of Anti-Terrorism Unit.

He said it was a new type of crimes they discovered in the year.

The Cyber and Special Crime Division of Detective Branch under Dhaka Metropolitan Police discovered Tkala– Personal Loans Online (Tkala. Thala-0430), Cashman (Cashman-0514, Cashman-0326), RapidCash- Quick Online eLoans, AmarCash-Personal Loans Online and Cashkash-Fast Loans apps that were trapping especially students in the name of digital loans.

This kind of crimes was not found in the country in the past, said police.