Turkish police detain 40 people over Twitch money laundering Rock Paper Shotgun Support us Join our newsletter Visit our store Sign in / Create account If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Turkish police detain 40 people over Twitch money laundering Donations allegedly used to launder money from stolen credit cards News by Alice O'Connor Associate Editor Published on Jan. 5, 2022 5 comments In a serious of coordinated raids, Turkish police have detained 40 people suspected of involvement with a money laundering ring which allegedly used Twitch for money laundering. Supposedly they were using stolen credit card info to buy Bits (Twitch's virtuacurrency), which they would then donate to Twitch streamers who had agreed to give money in return in exchange for keeping a portion for themselves. This first came to light following Twitch's big data leak last year. Watch on YouTube As Middle East Eye reported in November 2021, suspicions were raised following the huge Twitch leak in October which included earnings data for streamers. People combining over the numbers found that some streamers were receiving ludicrously large donations relative to their viewing figures. It's suspected that they were part of a criminal network where wrong'uns would coordinate with streaming wrong'uns to launder money. People would allegedly use stolen or scammed credit card info to buy Bits on Twitch, donate Bits to the streamers, and the streamers would cash their Bits out of Twitch into real money, then pay 80% of that money back, allegedly as cryptocurrency. Stolen money comes in, cryptocash goes out. A campaign formed to clean up Turkish streaming, including a streamer named "Grinmax". He posted a chatlog from when he was supposedly approached to join in. Unsurprisingly, Turkish authorities were interested too. A pair of reports from Turkey's İhlas News Agency say that police carried out simultaneous raids in 11 places, nabbing 40 of their 44 suspects. While early reports estimated that the group had laundered around $10 million (£7m), İhlas say that they made a profit of around $1 million. Police seized electronics and documents, so perhaps new numbers will follow. And, y'know, I'm relying on machine-translated sources. I suspect this is but the very tip of an iceberg of shady money being moved through gaming ecosystems. And hell, at times the vast sums of legitimate money moving through some of them feels shady enough. More News Jack King-Spooner's next handcrafted game has a teaser demo out Judero brings chat and action in the Scottish Borders Alice O'Connor 17 hours ago 1 If you were hoping for any Overwatch 2 balance changes then you'll have to wait until season two The next season begins in December CJ Wheeler 18 hours ago 3 The Dead Space remake will chuck random Necromorphs at you as you wander the Ishimura In space, no one can hear you proper bricking it CJ Wheeler 18 hours ago 8 Valve register mysterious new Neon Prime trademark in the US It doesn’t seem to be for a particularly colourful Steam Deck CJ Wheeler 20 hours ago 11 Latest Articles What are we all playing this weekend? Well? Alice O'Connor an hour ago 22 Past Wordle answers Here's an archive of previous Wordle words Ollie Toms 2 hours ago 1 Wordle answer today (Saturday 15 October) Hints and the answer to today's Wordle word Rebecca Jones 9 hours ago Overwatch 2 hero tier list Which are the best heroes in Overwatch 2? Ollie Toms 16 hours ago Supporters Only You're probably better than me at One Many Nobody You go on without… uh, you? Sin Vega 17 hours ago Supporter podcast - The Nate Files episode 13: dry bones Bad science is also FUN science! Alice Bell 18 hours ago Japanese dating show Love Wagon has surprising parallels with Yakuza and Persona My new obsession Ed Thorn 2 days ago If you're hankering after Bayonetta 3, Valkyrie Elysium might be a good substitute It's not out on PC until next month, but the console demo has been a surprise charmer Katharine Castle 1 week ago 4 We've been talking, and we think that you should wear clothes Total coincidence, but we sell some clothes Buy RPS stuff here