Some of the victims said the office of the firm, Vega, on lane 12 in Baridhara DOHS in Dhaka has remained closed since March 24.

Nur-e-Alam Badal, an official of a Chinese organisation in Dhaka EPZ, and his wife had given M Islam Arif, owner of Vega, Tk 10 lakh for immigration into Canada.

Hailing from Chittagong, Badal had to sell valuables and ornaments of his parents to collect the sum.

Like Badal, around 100 students of Dhaka University (DU) and different colleges in the city deposited about Tk 3 crore to Vega.

Mohammad Shahnewaz, a fourth year student of DU, had given the fake company Tk 2.55 lakh to get a visa for studentship in Germany.

Vega officials told him to receive the visa on March 28, but like many others, he found he was deceived by the cheats.

"We have filed a case with Cantonment Police Station against Arif and four others of his firm for misappropriating our money," one of the students said.

They suspect the culprits have already left the country.

"Arif called me to say that he is a foreigner and came to Dhaka to fulfil a mission of swindling Bangladeshi students," Shahnewaz said.

Cantonment police confirmed Shahnewaz filed a cheating case on March 29.

Students said Vega took sums of Tk 2.25 lakh to 5 lakh from them to arrange them student visa for Germany, Spain, Greece, Italy, Canada, US and other countries.

"I was encouraged to go abroad seeing an advert of Vega in the daily Prothom Alo last month. But it's now impossible to believe they have cheated us," Nur-e-Alam, a Dhaka College student, said.

Alam has lost Tk 2.35 lakh to the swindlers for a German visa.