Certificates on demand!

"A certificate may change your life and fulfil your dreams," reads the tagline of their website.

"Centre for Private Education" lured in people through the website and a call centre, with the promise of providing any certificate they wanted -- from SSC to Master's -- for a price.  Rapid Action Battalion on Saturday conducted a raid at the offices of Razia Group of Companies, and found the "educational institution" in Gulshan and Badda areas, ABM Faijul Islam, additional superintendent and staff officer (Operation) of Rab-3, told The Daily Star.

They arrested four people and recovered some certificates, passports, testimonials, leaflets, money receipts and registry books.

The arrestees are Azizur Rahman (27), Rafiqul Islam (30), Shariful Islam (18), and Haider Ali (30).

Rab said the institution is owned by one Ziaur Rahman, chairman of Razia Group of Companies.

Located in Pragati Tower in Badda, the company has other sister concerns like Mina Interior & Architecture Ltd, Razia IT Solution Ltd, Razia Medical Tourism & Travels, Study Aboard – visanews24.com, Mina Developers Ltd, Razia Hajj & Umrah Agency, E-commerce – Shop Online, and Glassgow Commerce College, according to their website.

They have another office in Gulshan's Kalachandpur, where the "Centre for Private Education" is located, Rab said.

At the office, there is a call centre where four to five girls work as agents.

They would divide clients in four groups: if someone did not pick up calls, they wrote "no response". If the potential client showed no interest, they are "cold customer"'; if one is somewhat interested, they are listed as "warm customer", and if anyone shows genuine interest to get certificates, he is tagged as "hot customer", Rab said after interrogating the arrestees.

They called interested customers to their offices, and had them admitted to their institution for Tk 5,000, Rab said. An SSC certificate would cost Tk 30,000, HSC for Tk 60,000 and higher degree certificates for Tk 1,20,000.

After signing a contract, the customer gets a receipt, and is told to meet after two months.

"In this period, the customer doesn't need to visit the office either," the Rab official said.

The next steps were taken by the company chairman Ziaur Rahman.

"Ziaur has put 'Dr' before his name, though we didn't get any authenticity of it. We are looking for him," the Rab official added.

Asked how he managed the certificate, the Rab official said the fraudster would get a certificate copy from the website of any university, and then edited the customer's details there. When a customer wanted to see the certificate, they would show it on a computer screen, and demanded more money to print it, he said.

Rab said they have been keeping eyes on the fraud company since January, after getting a complaint from a youth.

The youth is an SSC dropout, but needed a certificate recently for a job. He paid Tk 30,000 to the company for the certificate. They gave him a testimonial but kept demanding more money for the certificate. The youth then made a verbal complaint to Rab, added the Rab official.

The Daily Star contacted several phone numbers of Ziaur Rahman and the company, but none picked up the calls.