The public has been warned about a scam that uses the name, logo and officials’ identities of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to lure people with bogus loan offers and extract money. Fraudsters are creating fake websites, Facebook pages, forged ID cards and other deceptive materials using the identity of the ADB and its officials. The ADB’s Dhaka office issued the warning in a press release sent to the media on Monday morning.
A similar loan scam using the World Bank’s name had surfaced not long ago, prompting a warning from the World Bank’s Dhaka office at the time.
In its release, the ADB said it never provides loans, grants, funds or any other kind of financial assistance directly to individuals. Likewise, it does not ask any individual for personal financial information in exchange for financial assistance, nor request that money be deposited through mobile banking or any other channel.
The ADB said recent information showed fraudsters were creating fake websites, Facebook pages, forged IDs and other deceptive materials using the identity of the ADB and its officials to mislead ordinary people and extract money, and that it has no connection or involvement with any such activity. It strongly advised the public to be wary of such bogus loan offers and not to respond to such contacts, and asked that anyone contacted in the name of an ADB loan or financial assistance report it to the relevant law-enforcement authorities.
As a long-standing development partner of Bangladesh, the ADB said, it works with the Bangladesh government and various private-sector institutions to implement development projects through transparent and accountable processes. So if anyone offers loans or financial assistance directly at the individual level while claiming to represent the ADB, it should be treated as fraud.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report