ISTANBUL, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Turkish gendarmerie forces have cracked a cyber fraud network and detained four suspects after a six-month campaign, Istanbul Governor's Office announced on Monday.
The office said that Istanbul's anti-cyber crimes teams discovered that the suspects had collected 5 billion Turkish liras (about 187 million U.S. dollars) with promises of "high profits."
Acting upon a tip-off, the teams followed the activities of a so-called investment company, Idol Forex, which posted a series of advertisements on social media platforms, promising "high profits" to those who contacted them.
The teams found that the network first bought gold with the money obtained from fraud and converted the gold into cash through 10 shell companies to conceal the trace of the capital.
After approximately six months of surveillance, the forces launched a simultaneous operation against the network and detained four people in Istanbul. ■
