Turkish Police Shuts Down Chinese Crypto Gang That Kidnapped People

The Turkish police managed to shut down a huge Chinese crypto gang that kidnapped 101 people and held them as hostages in a villa in Istanbul while they conducted crypto scams so let’s read more in our latest crypto scam news.

The Turkish police made a raid in nine villas in Istanbul to expose a huge crypto scam and found more than 100 people that were held hostage and forced to scam people out of crypto as well. The police busted the Chinese gang for kidnapping workers and forcing them to run a crypto scam. The local news Demiroren Haber Ajansi reported that the scam operated as a crypto investment consultancy and hired 100 people to join them for a finance gig in Instanbul.

Silivri'de Çinli kripto para çetesi çökertildi.pic.twitter.com/FTLX0nj35N

— Haber365 TV (@haber365tv) March 13, 2021

The authorities however alleged that the gang trapped the employees in villas in the city and set them to work and scam Chinese investors out of their crypto. The crew included two Turkmens and four Kazakhs as well as 95 Chinese nationals according to the news agency. All were held against their will by the 18 leaders. The police exposed the operations after two captives Kang W. and Hongwu Z, contacted the Chinese consulate and alerted the local police.

After the alert, the police arrested six gang leaders and sent the rest to the local immigration authorities. The raid involved more than 100 police officers as the video shows. The Turkish Police sized about $200,000 worth of cash in foreign currency, 712 cell phones, 112 computers, and 677 sim cards as well as multiple hard disks and banknote counters. The scheme operated from nine villas that were sealed off from the city. The leaders of the operation took away the passports of the workers that entered the country on tourist visas and didn’t allow them to step outside of the complexes.

The captives were paid for the scam and earned more than $1000 per month for their work which is well above the minimum wage of $375 per month in Turkey and the minimum wage of $380 in Shanghai. Scammers are still operating with full steam all across the world, especially as crypto gains the spotlight and entered the mainstream. They use various methods to scam people and make some more money whether that be with fake emails, sim-swapping, blackmail, and ransom.