Do not get involved in money laundering schemes

Fraud incidents via websites and applications are increasing every day. Scammers who want to launder money through social media platforms and illegal gambling or betting try to attract the attention of citizens with posts like 'don't miss out on cheap vacation opportunities with low deposit payment options.'

Many citizens who fall into the fraud network known as 'money laundering via bank accounts' find themselves with criminal files opened against them because they have conducted transactions with illegal accounts.

THE WEBSITE ADDRESS MUST END WITH AN 'S'

Addressing the points that people who want to shop online should pay attention to when checking a website, Forensic Informatics Expert Attorney Emre Akman said, “At the beginning of a website, it says 'hdtp', which means it is an insecure site. In other words, there are some issues with the SSL certificate. The meaning of SSL certificates is essentially 'this site is secure; when you make any purchase from this site, third parties cannot access your transaction.' That is the Turkish explanation. When citizens enter a website, the beginning of the website address must be 'https', with an 's' at the end. It already appears in green in browsers and search engines, and this means it is a secure site. But you should not assume that you can shop safely just because you see this when you enter the site. One of the most important things is to please pay attention to the address of the site you are entering. As we said, they open the same system by adding a number or using different word games. In this way, they commit qualified fraud and transfer these funds to their own accounts. If the account they use is rented, it definitely has a place in the money laundering flow. When a citizen sends money to this account, they get caught in the money laundering traffic and an investigation is launched. When this investigation is launched, citizens who actually just wanted to go somewhere to enjoy their summer vacation find themselves in investigation files as suspects in the money laundering traffic,” he said.

PAY ATTENTION TO WEBSITE ADDRESSES

Explaining that scammers victimize citizens by taking examples of well-known sites, Forensic Informatics Expert Emre Akman said, “Our citizens need to pay attention to website addresses when searching for a vacation spot or a hotel on the internet, in the digital world, or on a search engine. If there is any extra word or number, know that this is a site created by scammers. We need to be more cautious when conducting our searches. We need to comply with the rules I mentioned. And most importantly, scammers are already taking advantage of this. By paying attention, we can already understand for ourselves whether the website we have entered is original or not. As I mentioned, they can scam people by adding a letter 'U' to the original site. But when you look at the website address, you will see the extra 'U' and decide not to enter, thus preventing yourself from being scammed,” he stated.

Stating that scammers demand money from people they lure into their networks through fake sites, Akman said, “When they enter these sites, of course, the scammers have live support systems or some kind of support system. When these systems are contacted, the scammers, with the mentality of 'every bit counts', take a certain amount of deposit from citizens before they go to the hotel or vacation spot, using excuses like 'the hotel is full' or 'there are faster reservations, there is a high demand'. This deposit can also go to an account used in the money laundering traffic; one must be careful,” he said.

News Source: İHA