Six people have been arrested in Türkiye in an investigation into fake websites that imitated application pages of TOKİ, the state housing agency, and were used to defraud people hoping to apply for its homes, the Ankara West Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement carried by Anadolu Agency (AA) and Yeni Akit.
Raids in five provinces
According to the statement, eight suspects were detained in simultaneous search operations in Ankara, Istanbul, Kocaeli, Manisa and Mersin. The investigation is being run by the office’s Forgery, Fraud and Cybercrime Investigation Bureau.
The suspects are accused of fraud committed by using information systems as a tool. After questioning they were brought before a court, which ordered six of them held in custody pending trial, the reports said.
Scam targeting housing applicants
The prosecutor’s statement said the fake sites had been set up to look like TOKİ application pages in order to deceive citizens wishing to apply.
The statement did not say how many people had been defrauded or how much money had been lost. Yeni Akit reported that the prosecutor’s office said the investigation was continuing.
TOKİ is also the main body behind Türkiye’s large-scale urban renewal programme; see Türkiye’s urban renewal drive reaches 2.38 million units.
Sources
- Sahte TOKİ başvuru siteleri soruşturmasında 8 şüpheliden 6’sı tutuklandı (AA via Son Dakika)
- Beş ilde sahte "TOKİ sitesi" operasyonu (Yeni Akit)
- Sahte TOKİ sitelerine 5 ilde operasyon: 6 şüpheli tutuklandı! (Son Mühür)
Photo: Colin / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
