Lawyers in Istanbul on Suspicion of Using Illegal Panel Systems to Access Citizens' Personal Data and Sending Them Fraudulent Messages

The operation was coordinated by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office's Cyber Crimes Investigation Bureau. Simultaneous searches and seizures were carried out at 39 law offices across Istanbul, with digital devices taken for examination. In the previous phase of the investigation, digital materials seized from Barış Sakızlı, Abdurrahman Kayseri, and fugitive Zafer Çam were scrutinized.

Examinations revealed panel access records belonging to law offices, user information, Google Authenticator codes, AnyDesk and TeamViewer connection traces, and Word and Excel files containing personal data. It was determined that panels had been remotely installed on computers in some offices and that user accounts were actively managed from within the offices. The illegal systems contained query modules that enabled access to citizens' identity, family, address, Social Security Institution (SGK), title deed, GSM, phone, tax liability, and parcel information.

Some suspects allegedly used this information to send citizens false notifications such as "Your debt has entered legal collection, "You missed the settlement period, and Seizure proceedings have been initiated against you, causing grievances. Money transfers believed to be payments for the sale and installation of the panels were also entered into the investigation file as evidence. By a decision of the Istanbul 5th Criminal Court of Peace, images of computers, mobile phones, disks, and USB drives in the offices were to be taken, or the devices seized if that was not possible.

The searches were conducted under the supervision of a public prosecutor and a bar association representative in accordance with the Attorneys' Law. Thirty-one lawyers were taken into custody.