Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) said on Monday that around $82 million (TL 1.5 billion) was transferred to TikTok users in the country since January 2021, with some accounts suspected of involvement in money laundering and terror financing.
The funds were funneled to a limited number of users, MASAK said, noting that some accounts are believed to have been used for illicit financial activities. The short-form video platform, which has about 29 million users in Turkey, is now under investigation for potential large-scale financial fraud.
Preliminary findings indicate that certain users received livestream “donations” through fake accounts designed to make the original recipient appear more popular and attract additional funds. Some users with few followers were able to collect large sums despite broadcasting blank screens or still images—raising suspicions the funds came from stolen credit cards.
MASAK suspects that these transactions may have been part of broader money laundering operations. The agency also found that some accounts, allegedly linked to the terrorist group Daesh, collected large donations via the platform. Authorities say terrorist affiliates have used TikTok to bypass traditional monitoring systems and move money covertly.
The investigation echoes a similar scheme uncovered on the livestreaming platform Twitch earlier this year. In March, 18 suspects were detained in a second wave of operations targeting fraud involving Twitch, where users allegedly laundered money using the platform’s virtual currency, “bits.” Authorities say the suspects used stolen credit and debit cards to make payments through Twitch and were later reimbursed in cash by streamers.