Scam alert: Fraudsters using bKash's name, lucrative offers to scam people

If you run into an offer with a chance to win thousands of taka from sites that claims and even resembles popular mobile financial service providers– tread carefully.

There is a high possibility it's a phishing scam run by fraudsters to get your personal information, including your bank accounts.

The Business Standard stumbled upon one such offer today from this site: teleloca.top. For security reasons, we suggest you do not browse it.

Designed to present itself as an authentic website affiliated with  bKash, it has a bKash logo on the left with the word 'bKash' right next to it. The colours of the site's contents also resemble the red and purple hues used on the bKash logo.

It is offering its customers to win up to Tk75,000 just by clicking a few blank 'e-envelopes' on its anniversary, the leading mobile financial service provider in the country. 

A screenshot of the site and the scam offer

The site also claims it has been trying to improve mobile communication for the last 25 years.

However, bKash says it is not making any such offers at present and called on its customers to stay vigilant if they encounter such offers.

"It's a scam. bKash only makes offers through its official website, app, press statements or advertisements," Shamsuddin Haider Dalim, head of Corporate Communications at bKash, told The Business Standard.

"Also, our offers are minimal. The amount this site in question is offering is abnormal.  Whenever this sort of offer comes to our attention we report it to the authorities concerned," he also said.

Dalim also called on bKash users to stay careful and vigilant when they stumble upon such offers.
He says a few things can be checked to ensure if an offer is authentic or not, such as the offer link, the amount offered, etc.

"Usually, scammers use the allure of earning easy money to lure in victims," he added.