Article 158/1(f) of the Turkish Criminal Code classifies fraud committed through information systems as an aggravated offense, carrying a prison sentence of four to ten years. In 2026, fake e-commerce sites, cryptocurrency investment schemes, and persuasion tactics carried out by SMS or phone remain among the most common subjects of criminal complaints filed with public prosecutors. Even so, most victims have little idea what legal avenues are actually open to them once they have lost their money.
This lack of awareness has a real cost: victims typically stop at filing a criminal complaint and either delay or never exercise their other rights, particularly the right to claim compensation. Yet the criminal process and the civil compensation process are two independent mechanisms that can, and should, be pursued in parallel.
Why Has Internet Fraud Become So Widespread in Turkey?
Digitalization means fraud no longer requires any physical meeting between perpetrator and victim. Fake product websites, investment platforms promising “guaranteed returns,” and phishing messages impersonating banking apps can all deploy the same scheme against a much wider pool of targets simultaneously.
Consider a foreign investor living in Istanbul who transfers money to a specific account after seeing a social media advertisement for a “high-yield cryptocurrency” opportunity, only to find all contact with the platform cut off afterward. This scenario now appears regularly in prosecutors’ case files. The fact that an information system was used as the instrument of the fraud elevates the case from ordinary fraud to the aggravated offense under Article 158/1(f) of the Turkish Criminal Code.
How Does the Criminal Complaint and Investigation Process Work?
The first step is for the victim to file a criminal complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office of their place of residence, or directly with the police. This application requires no fee and can be made in writing or given verbally to be recorded by the prosecutor’s office.
At this stage, the quality of the evidence is decisive. Suppose a victim submits a screenshot of a fraudulent payment link, the bank transfer receipt, and correspondence with the other party to the prosecutor. Concrete records of this kind directly affect how quickly the investigation can identify the perpetrator and trace the accounts involved. If deemed necessary, the prosecutor’s office may request technical analysis of bank records and IP data; once the evidence collected is considered sufficient, the file proceeds to the prosecution stage, i.e. the criminal trial.
The statute of limitations for aggravated fraud is 15 years, which means victims are not under pressure to rush the investigation stage. That said, submitting evidence promptly and completely always works in the case’s favor.
Compensation Claims: A Right Independent of the Criminal Process
One point that is frequently overlooked: a victim’s compensation claim does not have to wait for the outcome of the criminal case. Under the framework of tortious liability, a separate civil lawsuit can be filed for the material damages suffered, and any moral (non-pecuniary) damages, either alongside the criminal proceedings or as a claim joined to the criminal case itself.
In practice, many victims assume that filing a complaint with the prosecutor’s office is enough and that everything else will follow automatically, so they either forget to file a compensation claim or only think of it years later. In our view, this is a costly mistake that leaves victims worse off than necessary. Criminal proceedings aim to punish the perpetrator, while a civil lawsuit is aimed directly at recovering the victim’s financial loss. Pursuing both simultaneously puts the victim in a considerably stronger position.
Why Is an Interim Injunction to Freeze Assets So Critical?
Fraud cases are a race against time: perpetrators typically move the funds obtained to other accounts, or convert them to cash, within a very short period. This is why it is essential for victims to apply for an interim injunction (precautionary measure) before the case is concluded.
For example, if the funds in question are found to still be held in a specific bank account, an injunction obtained from the criminal peace judgeship (sulh ceza hakimliği) can temporarily freeze any transactions on that account. Without this step, even a compensation judgment won in the victim’s favor later on risks being unenforceable in practice, since obtaining a judgment and actually collecting on it are two entirely different stages.
Collecting the Claim After a Compensation Judgment
Winning a compensation judgment in court is not the end of the process; actually collecting the amount owed is a separate stage. If the perpetrator does not pay voluntarily, the judgment can be enforced through compulsory enforcement proceedings. The steps involved closely resemble those used in enforcement proceedings for commercial debt collection: identifying the debtor’s assets, requesting attachment (seizure), and, where necessary, compelling the debtor to make a formal declaration of assets.
The same mechanism applies where a company is seeking to recover losses caused by fraud; the difference is that the file is backed by evidence gathered during the criminal investigation, which makes it easier to detect early attempts by the debtor to conceal assets.
A Practical Roadmap for Victims
Rather than treating each of the steps above in isolation, it is more useful for victims to follow a general roadmap:
- Back up all digital evidence (screenshots, transfer receipts, correspondence) before it can be lost, and organize it chronologically.
- File a criminal complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office of your place of residence without delay.
- If the funds can still be traced to a specific account, do not delay requesting an interim injunction.
- Treat the compensation claim as a separate and independent right, one that does not need to wait for the outcome of the criminal case.
- Once a favorable judgment is obtained, initiate enforcement proceedings if needed to follow through on collection.
In internet fraud cases, the greatest loss is often not the money taken initially, but the legal steps not taken in time. Pursuing the criminal and civil processes together, and in the right order, significantly improves a victim’s chances both of seeing justice done and of actually recovering their losses.
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