Prominent sociology professor becomes victim of phone scam

ISTANBUL

Nilüfer Narlı, a prominent sociology professor in Turkey, has become a victim of a phone scam carried out by a man who portrayed himself as a policeman.

According to a report by daily Hürriyet on Feb. 18, 24-year-old Mustafa S. called Narlı on the phone and told her that “somebody had access to her bank accounts” and that she could lose all of her money.

Calling himself a police chief inspector, S. wanted her to collect all the money in different accounts into one account.

The man also sent her some official banking documents to convince her that he was a real policeman.

After winning confidence in Narlı, the man asked her to withdraw all her money from the bank and meet him.

As a mystification, he said they would use two names, “Barış [Peace],” and “Pınar [Fountain],” as codenames when they meet.

Narlı withdrew some 500,000 Turkish Liras ($36,690) from her bank, took all her jewelry from her house, placed all of it in a bag, and headed to the meeting point.

According to the daily, the man took the bag after he said “Barış” and Narlı replied “Pınar.”

Narlı understood that she became a victim of the fraud a few days later when the man called her again and asked if she had more money.

On examining the duo’s phone conversation list, Istanbul police units caught S. after tracing him from his mobile phone signals. S. refuted the fraud allegations, but the court sent him to jail.

Narlı, 66, is the head of a sociology department in a university in Istanbul.