A gang of criminals yesterday tried to extort money from the headmastere of different secondary educational institutions by cloning the mobile SIM cards of Louhajang upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) and the upazila secondary education officer.

Louhajang UNO Mohammad Kabirul Islam said the headmasters of different secondary educational institutions informed him that people were trying to extort money from them, posing as callers from the UNO office.

The criminals asked the headmasters to send money through a bKash number.

"I filed a general dairy with Louhajang Police Station in this regard,” Kabirul said.

Md Jahangir, Louhajang upazila secondary education officer, said his mobile SIM card was also cloned by the fraudsters but the teachers did not sent any money to the bKash number mentioned by the cheats.

The attempts by the fraudsters were foiled as the headmasters concerned verified the matter.