$129 million Turkish Farmville-clone scammer found in Uruguay

in #scam7 years ago

ciflik-bank-nedir_16_9_1521093630.jpg

The owner of a Turkish smartphone game that encouraged users to invest money into a ponzi scheme with the promise of quick, lucrative profits has disappeared with some of the money to Uruguay.

Mehmet Aydın, aged 27, had launched Farm Bank (Çiftlik Bank) at the end of 2016 with the promise of 50,000 lira ($13,000) profit a month for users investing 200,000 lira into the scheme, which he said would be invested in creating Turkey’s biggest dairy farm, secularist newspaper Sözcü said .

The form of the investment was an addictive smartphone game, which allowed bored users to pay to buy and level up virtual chickens, cows and goats that then paid users money over time spent playing the game.

ciftlik-bank-ceo-su-mehmet-aydin-dan-ses-mesaji-10665022_9905_amp.jpg

Aydın even set up some initial show-farms around the country and produced introductory videos for the giant facility he had promised to set up.

In total, the project raised 500 million liras ($129 million) and paid out 393 million to investors before Aydın sold his shares in the enterprise and disappeared in December 2017.

Much of the remainder of the money had been wired to northern Cyprus, the media later discovered .

Just before his disappearance, Aydın told the press that he was being threatened from overseas for his contribution to Turkey’s economic success.

“There are certain games being played with our nation,” he said. “We are getting threats from foreign sources, especially London. We are establishing Europe’s biggest facility, and this facility has upset certain groups.”

Investors flocked to the Çiftlik Bank building in Istanbul and farm facilities owned by the group elsewhere in protest on Tuesday after the repayment system in the game was shut down.

An official investigation was launched on charges of deliberate fraud, and it was discovered on Wednesday that Aydın had moved to Montevideo in Uruguay.

ciftlik-bank-bir-yilda-551-mil-manset.jpg

Sort:  

Congratulations @kawnn! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

Award for the number of upvotes

Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here

If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Upvote this notification to help all Steemit users. Learn why here!

Do not miss the last announcement from @steemitboard!

Congratulations @kawnn! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

Award for the number of upvotes

Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here

If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Upvote this notification to help all Steemit users. Learn why here!

Congratulations @kawnn! You have completed the following achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

Award for the number of upvotes

Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Do you like SteemitBoard's project? Then Vote for its witness and get one more award!

Congratulations @kawnn! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You made more than 1750 upvotes. Your next target is to reach 2000 upvotes.

Click here to view your Board of Honor
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:

Trick or Treat - Publish your scariest halloween story and win a new badge
SteemitBoard notifications improved

Support SteemitBoard's project! Vote for its witness and get one more award!

Congratulations @kawnn! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You made more than 2000 upvotes. Your next target is to reach 3000 upvotes.

Click here to view your Board of Honor
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:

Meet the Steemians Contest - The results, the winners and the prizes
Meet the Steemians Contest - Special attendees revealed
Meet the Steemians Contest - Intermediate results

Support SteemitBoard's project! Vote for its witness and get one more award!

Congratulations @kawnn! You received a personal award!

Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 1 year!

Click here to view your Board

Support SteemitBoard's project! Vote for its witness and get one more award!

Congratulations @kawnn! You received a personal award!

Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 2 years!

You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking

Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!