PopularTwitchstreamers are known for getting into questionable content such as gambling streams and terms of service-breaking outfits, but one ring of streamers was recently arrested in connection with money laundering. According to Turkish authorities who made the arrests, 40 people are connected in a scandal that’s been going on for two years.
Turkish police have officially confirmed that 40 people have been taken into custody for laundering money to purchase Bits onTwitch. The streamers in question were located across eleven different provinces in Turkey and an email paper trail dating back two years has been secured by the authorities. A portion of the Twitch streamers taken into custody regarding this money laundering scandal are still minors, while the majority are adults.
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According to Turkish news agency Demiroren, these culprits used stolen credit cards to buy Twitch Bits, a currency onAmazon’s livestreaming platform. The Bits were allegedly sent to streamers and the scammers were compensated with a refund of up to 80% of the purchase in real money. Although Bits were likely purchased in larger increments as Twitch permits, $10 would reward these alleged launderers with up to $8 once the refund was received.
Turkish publication Daily Sabah has been following this Twitch scandal since November 2021 when it noticed that smaller streamers with few viewers have been seeing a significant amount of money flood their channels. Daily Sabah’s discovery was on the heels of a forum post on a well-known Turkish website known as frmtr in a thread titled “Thief KO streamers," which warned other Turkish citizens of the scam. Politicians in the country have also been calling for a properinvestigation of Twitchsince a data breach back in October.
Some Twitch streamers involved in the Turkish money laundering scandal have admitted to knowingly participating, but it’s currently unclear how many were unaware that these Bits were being donated using stolen credit cards. It’s also not clear how many Twitch transactions were made with the stolen credit cards, but these scammers were able to accumulate an estimated $9.8 million over the last two years. The largestincrement of Twitch Bitsthat viewers can purchase at a time is 25,000, while donating Bits will highlight messages and send theTwitchstreamer a notification.
