Authorities detained 18 suspects, while another is wanted, in the second round of a recent operation over allegations of fraud via the popular livestreaming service Twitch.
Cybercrime units of police based in Istanbul are conducting the investigation into the case. In Istanbul and eight other cities, suspects were detained Tuesday in simultaneous raids. The suspects are charged with stealing the credit card and debit card information of a large number of unsuspecting victims.
They are accused of collaborating with Twitch users with a high number of followers to endorse them with cash through stolen credit and debit cards. Twitch accepts only "bits," a virtual currency, for users to financially endorse streamers. The suspects reportedly gave away bits by paying through stolen cards and received cash in return from streamers.
The first wave of operations was launched after the claims of a group of Turkish streamers alerted the authorities to unusual endorsement activity after a hacker leaked a Twitch source code and user payout information last year. The "unusual activity" was some streamers earning a huge amount of money daily despite having a very small number of viewers watching their streams. The livestreaming service owned by Amazon had faced online criticism following the incident, with users calling for a "clean Twitch." Jahrein, one of the most popular streamers, had led the campaign for better enforcement of the online platform against fraudsters and money laundering, and he had said that he testified and shared data with Turkish police about the scope of the fraud.
