Turkey Investigates Dogecoin Scam, 350 Million DOGE Stolen From Investors
Turkish police have opened an investigation into a dogecoin investment scheme that has allegedly stolen 350 million dogecoins from 1,500 scam victims.
The chief public prosecutor’s office of Küçükçekmece, a suburb of Istanbul, is conducting a large-scale investigation into an alledged crypto scam, Turkish news television channel TV100 reported this week.
A cryptocurrency system operating under the name “Dogecoin mining” was promised users a 100% profit in 40 days, in an apparent pyramid scheme.
Police identified the online pseudonym “Turgut V.”, who it believes is behind the scheme, according to local news channel TV100.
Turgut V. organized one-on-one meetings in high-class venues, with attractive promotions in order to convince investors to join the scheme. He also used a Telegram channel to direct investors to transfer their dogecoins to the system.
Everything went well for the first three months and investors were receiving their promised returns. This has caused the number of investors to substantially increase, which is typical for a pyramid scheme. In total, about 1,500 people transferred their dogecoins to scammers.
However, in the fourth month, Turgut V. suddenly shut down the system. Investors were unable to log in and tried to contact him and his associates by phone or at their office, without success.
The investors soon realized that they were defrauded. Some filed a complaint in the prosecutor’s office through their lawyer Sinan Keskin.
One of the victims, Ecem Ashyrova, told TV100:
“I deposited 4 million dogecoins. I have lost 12 million Turkish lire at the moment. We were promised to gain 100% with a 40-day package, but what we had in the palm of our hand is gone.”
They were told the Dogecoin they sent would purchase new equipment to mine DOGE. Dogecoins are made through a system called Proof of Work mining, the same system used by Bitcoin. Proof of Work means miners are compensated with coins in exchange for validating transactions and by solving equations to build the next block.
The Turkish Terrorism and Organized Crimes Bureau has since launched an investigation on Turgut V. and 11 of his associates. The prosecutor’s office has also issued a ban on leaving the country for Turgut V.
Turgut V. had collected 350 million dogecoins by the fourth month of the system’s operation, according to the investigation. Dogecoin is currently trading at $0.2848. At the current DOGE price, this amount is worth $100 million.
