"Hey, My New Phone Has No Dial Tone"

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Vatan Newspaper, 28 July 2018)


Suitable for use as bookmarks.

In Istanbul 3 months ago, E.K. filed a complaint with police in
regard to an interesting fraud technique.  E.K. explained that
"I encountered someone in front of a phone store who I assumed
to be a genuine phone seller.  He was showing a telephone he was
selling, saying "I brought this phone from abroad. It's worth
7,000 TL (about $1,500) but I need money so I'll accept 2,000 TL."

Another couple of people came by and bought the phone so,
thinking that this was a good deal, I bought one, too.  But when I
got home and opened the box I found that the 'phone' was just a
cardboard mock-up model."  Police began an investigation and
determined that a fraud gang member would show a real phone but
have other gang members come by, feign interest to create a buzz
and dupe normal citizens into taking advantage of this 'great deal'.

Police found that the gang also used this fraud technique in Antalya,
Aydın and Malatya.  For example, in a case from Antalya that
shocked even the police, a victim got 145,000 TL in credit from a
bank and bought hundreds of what turned out to be dummy phones.
(!)  After the 3-month police investigation, raids conducted
simultaneously in Istanbul, Antalya, Aydın and Malatya resulted in
the arrest of the gang members, who had duped 21 people out of
625,000 TL.
 

                       Phony phone guys.