Nearly 100 Chinese citizens may have been forced to commit fraud after Turkish police uncovered a cryptocurrency scam
Turkish police have busted a cryptocurrency scam in the city of Sillivri, near Istanbul, and arrested a total of 119 Chinese, 18 of whom were suspects, while another 101 people appeared to have been forced to work for the 18 suspects to carry out the scam, Hurriyet newspaper reported on March 13.
It is understood that the suspects rented nine villas in the area and set up a "phone call center" to provide so-called "cryptocurrency advisory services" to people living in China. The 18 suspects promised jobs to 101 other Chinese nationals, including programmers, network engineers and other professionals from China. Once they arrived at their "work sites," the Chinese were forced to "work," barred from leaving the campus and stripped of their passports.
Two of the men fled the building during the night and contacted the Chinese consulate, which notified local police, who dispatched more than 100 officers to carry out the arrest, Hurriyet said, citing police.
Police seized 1.5 million lira in cash ($198,000), 712 mobile phones, 677 SIM cards, 112 computers and items such as cash counters and hard drives. The police disclosed that the suspects paid about Rmb7,000 a month as a "salary" for each person who was forced to work.
At present, 6 people in 18 criminal suspects have been transferred to judicial organs for detention.
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