The digital asset space is now slightly safer for investors as the Turkish police arrested some fraudsters suspected to have kidnapped over 100 people. This reveals why authorities are becoming very stringent with digital asset laws as the space becomes difficult to live in with different scams around the space.
The Kidnappers are reportedly Chinese, and they forced their victims to scam people. Bitcoin’s continuous growth has led criminals to use it to scam people without being traced based on the decentralized nature. While most crypto service providers demand information from their customers, some are yet to mandate the measures making the region vulnerable to cyber frauds and money-laundering.
Kidnappers force victims to scam Chinese investors
On March 12, the Turkish police cracked down on a group of Chinese men forcing people to scam people through cryptocurrencies. An insider news source called Demirören Haber AjansI was one of the first to share the kidnap news. The local news source revealed that the gang deceived the kidnapped victims into thinking they were operating a crypto investment consultancy.
The criminals used this opportunity to hire people under the guise of giving them a finance-related job. The place where the victim kidnapped the unsuspecting victims was in Turkey, Istanbul. The criminals forced the victims to work in villas around the region and then locking them in, preventing them from escaping.
The victims were forced to scam Chinese investors, being under duress by the criminals who trapped them in villas. The victims were about 101, and reports explained they were 95 Chinese citizens, two Turk natives, and four Kazakhs.
New sources explained that the people who orchestrated the plan were about 19 in numbers, making their victims scam Chinese crypto buyers. The criminals met their doom when two of their captives, Chinese citizens, Hongwu Z and Kang, called Chinese authorities and secretly reported the incident to them. The Chinese representatives reported the issue to Turkish operatives immediately, which led to the rescue of over 100 people.
Victims were paid far above minimum wage for their services
When the authorities were informed of the issues, they immediately swung into action, which led to the capture of about six operators. The police also advised the captives to go to their local immigration authorities. During the unexpected raid, the police seized around $200,000 worth of money in different currencies.
The authorities also got over 600 phones, 112 computers, and almost 700 sim cards. During the capture, the Turkish operatives understood that the victims were held in about nine villas all around the city. Sources explained that the kidnappers also withheld their victims’ visas, mostly Tourist visas, while preventing them from leaving the villas. Interestingly, the victims got attractive salaries as they were given $1,000 every month, which is far above Turkey’s minimum wage, which was slightly over $300.
The amount was also much more than China’s minimum wage, with Shanghai’s almost $400. The government would likely return the captives to their various countries while prosecuting the captors.
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