I Sent Money to an IBAN and Was Scammed: What Should I Do? Complaint, Evidence and Getting Your Money Back

1. What to do in the first hours

1. Call your bank. Give the date, time, amount and recipient IBAN, and say clearly that it is fraud. Note the time of the call.
2. Notify the receiving bank too. The bank code in the IBAN identifies it. The freeze decision is made by the institution holding the money.
3. File a complaint with the prosecutor or the nearest police/gendarmerie unit (see below).
4. Do not delete the conversation; take screenshots before blocking the fraudster.
5. Do not pay anything more. Requests such as "pay a fee first to get your refund" are a common second scam.

What is the 48-hour account freeze?

Article 128/A, added to the Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP) by Law No. 7571 of 24 December 2025 (Official Gazette of 25 December 2025), provides:

• Who decides? The bank, payment service provider or crypto-asset service provider.
• For which offences? Suspected qualified theft (Penal Code art. 142(2)(e)), qualified fraud committed using IT systems or a bank as a tool or by impersonating a bank employee or public official (art. 158(1)(f) and (l)), and misuse of bank or credit cards (art. 245).
• How long? Up to 48 hours.
• Is it mandatory? No. The law says a freeze "may" be decided; the institution has discretion.
• What next? The institution reports immediately to the prosecutor. During the freeze, the money can be seized by a judge's order, or by the prosecutor's written order where delay is risky; a prosecutor's seizure must be submitted to a judge within 24 hours and lapses if the judge does not decide within 48 hours.
• If the money has moved to another bank: the institution must notify that institution without delay.
• Return to the victim: if seized money is found to belong to the victim, it is returned during the investigation or trial (art. 128/A).

2. Where and how to complain

• Where? The chief public prosecutor's office or the police/gendarmerie. Complaints made to a governor's office, district governor's office or court are forwarded to the prosecutor (CCP art. 158).
• How? In writing or orally (recorded in minutes). Describe events in date order; give the recipient's name, IBAN, phone numbers, ad links and user names; attach the evidence; state clearly that you wish to file a complaint against the suspect.
• Is there a deadline? Fraud is not an offence prosecuted only on complaint; the prosecutor investigates on their own initiative, so the six-month complaint period does not apply. The prosecution limitation period is 8 years for simple fraud and 15 years for qualified fraud (Penal Code art. 66 [2]). In practice, the timing of your report matters so the money can still be traced.

Your rights during the investigation

Under CCP art. 234, as a victim you may:

• ask for evidence to be collected (e.g. the recipient account's bank records, IP records, the subscriber of the phone line);
• request copies of documents, provided the investigation's confidentiality is not harmed;
• object to a "no grounds for prosecution" decision within two weeks of being served, to the criminal judgeship of peace (CCP art. 173);
• if a case is opened, join it as an intervening party by declaring your complaint before the first-instance court's judgment (CCP art. 237).

3. Evidence to keep

Besides screenshots, keep exported chats and the original device if possible. Do not edit or crop the evidence.

4. Which offence is it, and what is the penalty?

Fraud: deceiving someone by fraudulent conduct and gaining a benefit to that person's or another's detriment. Penalty: 1 to 5 years' imprisonment and a judicial fine of up to 5,000 days (Penal Code art. 157 [2]).

Qualified fraud: if committed, for example, using IT systems, banks or credit institutions as a tool (art. 158(1)(f)) or by impersonating a public official or bank employee (art. 158(1)(l)), the penalty is 3 to 10 years; in these two cases the minimum is 4 years and the judicial fine cannot be less than twice the benefit obtained (Penal Code art. 158 [2]).

Victim-offender mediation (uzlaştırma): a procedure in which the suspect and victim try to reach an agreement through a mediator. In simple fraud the prosecutor may refer the file to mediation; if agreement is reached and performed, the criminal proceedings are concluded accordingly.

The account holder who lent their IBAN

The money often goes to the account of someone who let others use it. Under the new paragraph 4 of art. 158, added by Law No. 7589 and in force since 31 July 2026, a person whose participation is limited to giving a payment instrument or account access details to another for unjust benefit receives a sentence reduced by half. They are still criminally liable, but less severely than the organiser. Whether the account holder knew about the fraud (intent) is investigated separately.

5. Can the money be recovered?

Consider three routes together:

1. Seizure and return (within the criminal investigation)

If the account is frozen in time and the money seized, it can be returned once found to be yours (CCP art. 128/A). This route works within the criminal investigation, but depends on the money still being in the account.

2. Repayment by the offender (effective repentance)

If the offender returns or compensates the loss before prosecution begins, the sentence is reduced by up to two-thirds; after prosecution begins but before judgment, by up to half. For partial repayment, the reduction requires the victim's consent (Penal Code art. 168 [2]). Whether to consent to a partial offer is your decision.

3. Civil action

• Tort (Code of Obligations art. 49): whoever causes damage through a culpable and unlawful act must compensate it. Those who jointly cause the same damage are jointly and severally liable (Code of Obligations art. 61 [3]).
• Unjust enrichment (art. 77): whoever is enriched from another's assets without just cause must return it. This route may also be considered against the holder of the account that received the money.
• Time limits: for tort, 2 years from learning of the damage and the person liable, and in any case 10 years from the act; if the act is a crime with a longer limitation period, that period applies (art. 72 [3]). For unjust enrichment, 2 years from learning of the right to restitution, and in any case 10 years (art. 82 [3]).

Can the bank be held liable?

If you made the transfer yourself (even if deceived), the bank is not automatically liable. Whether the bank was at fault (for example, failing to act after being notified) is assessed case by case; there is no single, settled rule. Cases where your card or online banking details were used without your knowledge follow different rules and are outside this article.

6. Hypothetical example

This example is purely hypothetical. C finds a phone on a second-hand listings site, messages the seller on WhatsApp and sends TRY 15,000 to the IBAN the seller provides. The seller disappears. That evening C calls the bank and reports fraud, and the next morning files a complaint with the prosecutor. If the receiving bank froze the account and TRY 9,000 is still there, this can be seized by a judge's order and returned once it is found to belong to C. For the remaining TRY 6,000, C can take civil action against the persons identified in the investigation. If the account was not frozen or the money was already withdrawn, the outcome may be entirely different.

7. FAQ

The account holder says, "I gave my account to someone else, I didn't know about the money." What happens?

This defence is investigated: whether they knew, why they gave the account and whether they benefited. Under new art. 158(4), someone who knowingly lent their account receives a sentence reduced by half, but is not free of liability.

The fraudster says, "I'll repay you, withdraw your complaint." What then?

Since fraud (Penal Code arts. 157 and 158) is not prosecuted only on complaint, withdrawing it does not end the investigation by itself. If payment is offered, accept it in a traceable way (bank transfer) and inform the investigation file.

Is it worth complaining about a small amount?

That is your decision. But if the same IBAN or phone number appears in other victims' complaints, files may be joined and the fraudster may be easier to identify.

If the prosecutor decides not to prosecute, can I still bring a civil case?

The civil judge is not bound by the criminal-law rules on liability or by a criminal acquittal when deciding on fault (Code of Obligations art. 74 [3]). So the outcome of the criminal file does not by itself end your compensation claim; the objection route (CCP art. 173) also remains open.