ANKARA (Dispatches) -- Turkish police announced the completion of an operation to dismantle an Israel-linked fraud network that stole hundreds of millions of dollars from victims on three continents over two years, Middle East Eye (MEE) reported.
Turkish security forces apprehended 175 suspects during a series of dawn raids at 236 addresses in the cities of Istanbul and Mugla, Turkish Justice Minister Akin Gurlek announced on Friday.
In coordination with Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and Interpol, police targeted the network, which involved 42 call centers operated by 28 shell companies.
The network defrauded victims in Europe, East Asia, and Africa of some $266 million by selling them fraudulent investments.
The companies used fake sales representatives who spoke various languages to run telephone scams from call centers. Representatives operating under false identities claimed to represent fake investment firms.
“Applicants undergo one week of training. During this period, each employee is given an alias and instructed to create a false personal background,” one Turkish official said.
“These fabricated stories include details designed to impress potential victims and gain their trust, such as claiming to be an Oxford graduate.”
Representatives convinced victims to transfer money to the shell companies under the pretext of investing in foreign currency (FOREX) markets.
The funds were then transferred to overseas bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets.
The scammers created fake online investment platforms and showed victims fabricated returns to convince them to invest more.
When victims tried to withdraw their investment, they were told they must deposit additional funds to “unfreeze” the account or pay a tax on the alleged gains.
Victims were defrauded of amounts ranging from $10,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Turkish officials said an Israeli settler from the occupied Palestinian territories who also holds a Portuguese passport operated the fraud network.
Potential call center employees were given polygraph tests to ensure they had no links to law enforcement or security agencies.
Employees were forbidden from attempting to scam Israeli settlers.  
Multiple fraudulent companies based in Israeli occupied territories have run similar scams, according to past investigations by Reuters and the OCCRP, a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group.
In one case, OCCRP identified a network of call centers based in occupied Palestinian lands, Eastern Europe, and Georgia whose employees scammed at least 32,000 people out of at least $275 million.