Fraudsters increasingly pose as Turkish actors and deceive gullible citizens

Online dating is a modern trap in the network, which can turn into a loss of money in the absence of due care. Fraudsters create profiles on dating sites and begin their “romantic” communication with the victim. When a certain level of trust is formed between the interlocutors, the attackers begin to implement their basic scheme. This can often be a profitable investment offer. The interviewee says that he earns large sums and that he has a friend in this field. The man agrees to try his luck and faces the loss of money on fake investments. Also one of the popular schemes, when the attacker reports that he sent his beloved an expensive parcel, and she needs to pay tax, customs fee and so on to receive a postal item. In fact, there is no parcel, and the account and all “mandatory” payments are fake. How not to become a victim of such schemes and how they work – we will talk about this in our article prepared in the framework of a joint project with the Investigative Committee devoted to countering cyber fraud.

Today, Turkey ranks second after America in the number of sales of its films to foreign audiences. Many fans of Turkish TV series are attracted by beautiful actors and great acting. Thanks to their professionalism, any film turns into a work of art. Shooting looks realistic, using expensive scenery. The creators do not save on the implementation of their projects. This explains the phenomenon of their popularity. Including Belarus. This love of art is actively used by fraudsters. Under the guise of famous actors, they fall in love with gullible women and lure their savings.

Alexander Sukhodolsky. According to the investigation, in January 2025, a 52-year-old resident of Vitebsk in the social network TikTok met a man. He introduced himself as Kerem Bursin, saying that he is an actor and lives in Turkey. After meeting the new interlocutor actively began to throw compliments to the woman and confess her love, said the official representative of the Investigative Committee Alexander Sukhodolsky. On Easter, the actor decided to please his beloved: on April 21 he sent a package with a gift. Fueling interest in surprise and quenching a woman's curiosity, he periodically sent images with content - expensive jewelry.

But that was the end of the story. The woman received a message about the need to pay for delivery. They demanded to transfer 3 thousand rubles to a certain account. A resident of Vitebsk said that there is no such money, and reported the problem to the “Turkish actor”. The latter assured that he paid for the shipment, and she needs to pay for the receipt.

- The next day, a 52-year-old resident of the regional center went to transfer money. A bank employee told a gullible woman that the account was Lithuanian and asked about the transfer. After hearing the story, she called the police and told the victim about the fraudsters. During the interrogation, the woman explained to the investigator that she really believed all the reports of the actor, and did not know about this type of fraud. The victim's mobile phone has been examined. Correspondence with the attackers is attached to the materials of the criminal case. A criminal case has been opened, Alexander Sukhodolsky added. One of the no less popular schemes is when attackers create fake profiles of girls on dating sites and under various pretexts begin to lure money from their victims. Often it can be an intimate photo or other services of this orientation. In fact, there are no photos, and on the other side of the screen behind the photo of a beautiful girl is an ordinary teenager.

The Myadel district department of the Investigative Committee completed an investigation into fraud and the distribution of pornographic materials. The attempt of a 19-year-old resident of Mädel, previously convicted of fraud, to repeat the criminal scheme showed that the saying that you will not enter the same river twice does not always work when it comes to selfish motives. In November last year, a young man came across in a bot of one of the channels of the messenger Telegram on the so-called manual - instructions describing the ways of earning, both legal and criminal. He drew particular attention to the scheme of deception under the guise of requests for material assistance. Inspired by what he read, he created a fake profile of a girl named Diana in a chatbot of a popular dating channel. The goal was simple: to communicate with men, mislead them and receive money under various pretexts, said the official representative of the Investigative Committee.

On the evening of November 23, a man responded to the questionnaire. Correspondence quickly became active. During the communication, the attacker, acting on behalf of Diana, offered the interlocutor to purchase pornographic materials and provided a “price list”. Having received consent and payment in the amount of 150 rubles to the card of his wife, he sent the man seven downloaded from the Internet files: four photos and three videos.

- But he did not stop there. The next day the correspondence continued and the young man began to offer a personal meeting with the promise of providing intimate services. Under various pretexts – from “paying rent” to “meeting guarantee” – he convinced the man to transfer another 1,950 rubles. When “Diana” stopped communicating, the victim realized that he was a victim of fraud, and turned to law enforcement. Thanks to the operational work of police officers, the identity of the attacker was quickly established. During the interrogation, the young man tried to explain his actions by the difficult financial situation: the imminent birth of a child, the need to buy medicines for a pregnant wife and the presence of an unpaid fine. However, these arguments are inconsistent with his previous conviction for a similar offence and the general nature of his actions. The defendant had an outstanding and outstanding conviction for fraud. As in the past, his actions were motivated by criminal intent. The actions of a resident of Myadel were qualified by investigators under two articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, Alexander Sukhodolsky summed up. It is important to know that there are ways to bring scammers to clean water. First, it is worth checking in search engines the presence of a photo of the interlocutor. It could be a picture stolen from another person. Secondly, you need to carefully read the biography of the partner. After all, the fraudster it is fictional, which means that he could easily be mistaken in the details. You can ask me to show you old photos. As a rule, if the account really belongs to someone on the back of the smartphone or computer screen, it will not be difficult to do this. Criminals will not have such photos, and if they suddenly find, then there is a high probability that they will differ from the biography.

Never click on links in user profiles and messages that appear to be unrelated to the conversation. Never transfer money or gift cards, and don’t divulge your bank details to anyone you know only online.

sichevich@sb.by