Istanbul, Turkey is awash with billboards advertising new crypto offerings from virtual asset exchanges, but recently discovered that some of its billboards in the city are illegitimate and fraudulent.
On Monday, Binance's Turkish branch said that scam artists have plastered fake Binance billboards throughout the country, many of which have been hacked by hackers.
In order to warn customers in the country about the scheme renting billboards, a company called Binance Turkey has taken to Twitter and claimed that billboards similar to the image below have been striking in different regions of Turkey. This has nothing to do with Binance! The company said that it would pursue action against those who are clearly involved in fraudulent activities. In April, a customer service center was opened in the country by Binance, which launched its first 24 hour customer service center. Part of its motivation has been to stop fraud and help customers with help with their transactions in criptocurrency.
Binance is not the only exchange that is plunging deeper into the Turkish market. A nearly $3.2 billion acquisition of Turkish criptocurrency exchange BtcTurk is being discussed by Coinbase.
A depreciating Turkish lira, high inflation and interest rate cuts have resulted in a surge in popularity of cryptocurrencies in the country.
In the last year, the central bank of Turkey imposed a ban on cryptocurrencies for goods and services: Their use in payments may cause non-recoverable losses for the parties to the transactions and include elements that could undermine the confidence in methods and instruments used in payments, the central bank said.
In particular, Istanbul expressed concern about the high transaction risks associated with virtual assets and the irreparable damage they could cause to the economy.