She clicked a fake MHRS appointment link and got the shock of her life

Zeliha İrem Karaman, a 27-year-old living in Denizli, went through a nightmare while trying to book a hospital appointment online via the Central Physician Appointment System (MHRS). Searching for "book MHRS appointment" on her mobile browser, Zeliha İrem Karaman clicked on a sponsored link that appeared at the top of the search engine results. Encountering a fake e-Government and MHRS interface that was a perfect visual copy of the real one, the young woman entered her information and logged into the system.

They locked the screen by claiming "You did not attend your appointment"

The moment she logged into the system, a warning appeared stating, "You have a fine of 227 TL for not attending a previous appointment." Zeliha İrem Karaman panicked when the screen would not close without this fee being paid. The unfortunate woman entered her credit card details into the fake site to pay the debt and entered the first verification code sent to her mobile phone. After receiving an "Incorrect code entered" warning on the screen, Zeliha İrem Karaman, trusting the system, entered the second confirmation code sent to her phone. When she encountered the same warning again, the young woman became suspicious and immediately checked her bank account activity. Upon inspection, she realized that a total of 20,843 TL had been withdrawn from her account, not in TL, but through two separate transfers of 10,000 TL each, equivalent to 227 dollars.

"I called my bank and had my card blocked"

Stating that she clicked on the first site that appeared, Zeliha İrem Karaman said, "While searching the internet to make a hospital appointment, I typed MHRS into the search engine and clicked on the site that appeared at the top as an advertisement. I logged in with my e-Government information without checking the site extension. Later, a screen appeared telling me I had a 227 TL fine for an appointment I did not attend. While I was trying to pay the debt, the transaction failed and I was given an incorrect password warning. However, I later learned that this is a method used by scammers. While they were showing me an error message, they were making two withdrawals from my card in dollars in the background. As soon as I realized the situation, I called my bank and had my card blocked. The next day, I went to the prosecutor's office and filed a criminal complaint," she said.

"I saw that many people were victimized by similar methods"

Expressing that she learned there were many other victims who had been scammed in a similar way after sharing her experience on social media, Zeliha İrem Karaman said, "After I shared this incident, many people reached out to me on social media. I saw that many people were victimized by similar methods. For example, I came across posts from a person who fell into the same trap while trying to top up their Istanbulkart. I invite everyone to be careful. When transacting online, always check the site addresses and extensions. Scammers can move their fake sites to the top of search results by paying for advertisements. Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way," she said. Meanwhile, as soon as Zeliha İrem Karaman realized she had been scammed after the transaction made via her bank card, she contacted the bank, had her card canceled, and applied for the transaction to be reversed. Because the money transfer was still in the authorization stage, the bank told the young woman that an application for cancellation could not be made until the transfer was completed. After the money transfer was completed, Zeliha İrem Karaman's application to cancel the transaction was rejected.