Man scammed of $113,000 by a person he met on social media: Two people arrested

An individual who was scammed of over 100,000 USD said he lost the money to a person he met on social media posing as a contractor.

The complaint named only as TT, said he lost 113,000 US dollars to a fake profile he met on Facebook in April 2021.

One person identified only as F.I was arrested by the police in connection with the incident on Wednesday November 13 and brought to court on charges of "obtaining money through fraud".

According to police testimony in court, the complaint TT came to the police criminal department in Lefkosa on June 6, 2022, T.T. to report that he met one Michael Cheng on Facebook in April 2021 and they began chatting. 

Michael claimed he would be coming to Lefkosa to start construction on a football stadium. He allegedly came to Lefkosa in May 2021 and sent T.T. some photos via WhatsApp, later asking for a $3,000 loan for quarantine expenses due to issues with his bank account. T.T. reportedly transferred the money to one A.K.'s account.

By June, 2021, T.T. has already transferred a total of $110,000 in loan to one F.İ.'s account in four separate installments to cover materials for the stadium construction, with all transactions done through a bank in Thailand. However, after the transfers, Michael stopped communicating with T.T. When T.T came to north Cyprus in November 2021, he discovered that the stadium did not exist and filed a complaint against those who had deceived him.

The police noted that in June 2022, they wrote to the banks where F.İ. and A.K. held accounts, discovering that the funds were received into their accounts and subsequently withdrawn at different times in 2021. The suspects stated that they sent the money to Michael but provided no further details besides his name.

On November 30, 2023, A.K., who was arrested in connection to the case, was released on bail while F.İ. was located and arrested on November 13, 2024.

The investigation is complete, and the police requested bail for the suspect. 

Evaluating the evidence presented, the judge ordered that F.İ. be released on bail on the condition that he is banned from leaving the country, provide two guarantors each to sign a bail bond of 500,000 TL, and report to the police once a week.