Türkiye to set up anti-fraud center to tackle surging cases

ANKARA

Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi (L) and Justice Minister Akın Gürlek (DHA Photo)

Türkiye is set to establish a dedicated center to combat the growing threat of online scams, Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi has announced.

The decision was taken following a meeting between Çiftçi and Justice Minister Akın Gürlek on Oct. 28.

Çiftçi said the center would aim not only to apprehend suspects but also to develop a system capable of recovering victims’ money.

“We apprehend suspects involved in cyber fraud and bring them to justice, but even when perpetrators are caught, it is not always possible to recover money transferred to different accounts,” Çiftçi said in a social media post.

“Yet the money lost to fraud does not simply vanish. It changes hands between bank accounts and is transferred to digital wallets and crypto assets,” he added.

“Our goal is not merely to catch criminals, but also to protect the hard-earned income and life savings of our citizens,” Çiftçi said.

The minister also said authorities planned to use an artificial intelligence model named Dolunay to intervene in these financial flows.

The authority’s aim is to respond to fraud reports within the first 18 minutes, monitor suspicious financial transactions in real time through AI-powered analysis, and swiftly activate mechanisms to freeze the relevant accounts in accordance with legal procedures, he said.

According to 2025 judicial statistics, the number of case files involving fraud offenses rose by 18 percent to 1.1 million nationwide.

A Turkish Statistical Institute survey on crime victimization also found that cybercrime and consumer fraud ranked among the most commonly reported forms of victimization experienced by the public over the previous year.