In short
The complaint is opened together with the list of evidence and the head of loss. A promise of a refund is not the result of the complaint. The return of the money is in a separate article.
The payment slip, the correspondence, and the identity particulars are added. Missing papers weaken the following.
Enforcement of a commercial claim does not stand in for every file of fraud.
The record of the public prosecutor's office runs with the papers.
Related articles: the offence of fraud.
A complaint of fraud is the victim notifying the competent authority, in writing or by a minute, of the event, the loss, and the evidence. A report is the route of notification that a person who is not the victim can use too. Because fraud, as a rule, does not depend on a complaint, the public prosecutor can proceed of their own motion; most files are opened by an application all the same.
This text is focused on the application. All the stages of the investigation are not repeated here. It is general information; there is no promise of a result.
Introduction: are the complaint and the report the same door?
Many people, while looking for a "complaint petition", are in fact looking at two separate legal doors. One is to notify the offence; the other is to show the will to pursue it in the capacity of victim. In offences that depend on a complaint, such as insult, the file may not run without the second door. In fraud the principle of a public prosecution weighs more heavily. This difference also changes the expectation of withdrawal and of reconciliation.
In Ankara the application can be taken into the record at a police unit, or at the office of the chief public prosecutor. A transaction in Çankaya can join with an account in another district; for that reason the place and the account particulars should be written clearly in the petition. For the elements, the article on the offence of fraud can be read, and for the flow of the investigation the article on how a public prosecutor's investigation works. The general frame: criminal law.
What does the application aim at?
The aim of the application is that the public prosecutor's office learns of the event and begins to gather evidence. The aim is not that the court immediately gives a decision for the return of the money. The petition must answer the questions of who, to whom, when, by which deception, and which loss was caused. A sentence of "I was defrauded, I am seeking my right" does not build the frame of the event.
A good text of an application does three things: it tells the event chronologically, it makes the head of loss concrete, and it numbers the annexes. A guess, a rumour, and a comment on social media must be a separate paragraph; otherwise the account scatters. If the full identity of the other side is not known, the IBAN, the username, the number, and the profile link are written. A field that is not known is left as "not known"; it is not invented. An identity that was invented both diverts the investigation and can open a new legal risk for the applicant. The petition is the list of proof of the allegation; it is not a novel.
Who can apply?
- Natural persons who think they suffered a loss
- Authorised representatives in the name of a legal person
- Parents or guardians who act in the capacity of legal representative
- Third persons who learned of the event and who report it
- The real owner of an account about which a transaction was made (in a claim of takeover)
The victim and the person who reports may not be the same person. The person who reports can shift to the position of a witness. A person without authority giving a complaint in the name of a company later opens a debate about representation. An application by a lawyer with a power of attorney is possible; it is not obligatory.
If more than one victim suffered a loss from the same event, each should write their own head of loss. Although a joint petition is possible, the amounts getting mixed often gives rise to a mistake. If a circular of signature, or a document of authority, is not added in money that left a company account, a debate about representation can delay the file. In payments inside the family, a sentence of "I paid in their place" makes the capacity of victim uncertain; who paid, and who was deceived, should be written separately.
Step by step: how are a report and a complaint made?
- Writing the event in order of date on a paper, or in a file.
- Gathering the annexes of the payment slip, the correspondence, the advertisement, the identity, and the IBAN; taking a copy.
- Writing clearly the amount of the loss, a partial refund if there is one, and what remains.
- Choosing the police or the public prosecutor's unit according to the place of the event and the urgency.
- Reading the petition or the minute before signing it; correcting a missing sentence.
- Keeping the receipt, the document number, or a copy of the minute.
- Giving a further petition for documents found later.
- Not missing the services and the summonses to give a statement.
This order does not produce an indictment, or a decision that there is no ground for prosecution. It only helps the file to be opened soundly. If there are electronic channels, the receipt is kept all the same. CİMER does not stand in for this list; it is an administrative communication.
The headings that must stand in the petition
- The applicant's identity and contact particulars
- The start of the event, the allegation of deception, and the moment of payment
- The particulars that are known about the other side
- The tying of the allegation of loss and of benefit to the documents
- The request: that an investigation be carried out, and that the evidence be gathered
- The list of annexes
A language of promise such as "I definitely ask that the perpetrator be punished and that my money be returned immediately" weakens the legal text. The request is written within the frame of the statutory duties of the competent authority. Requests of private law and of enforcement are the subject of separate petitions.
The police minute and the petition to the public prosecutor
At the police, an oral account can be entered in a minute. The minute asks for as much care as the petition; it should be read before the signature. The petition to the public prosecutor gives the possibility of a more controlled text. Both are valid. In a digital event, a direction to the cyber unit can be entered inside the minute. A delay in the direction makes it even more important that a copy of the annexes stays with the applicant.
Not mixing the application with the flow of the investigation
This writing does not draw again the whole map of the public prosecutor's investigation. The general working of the statement, of a decision that there is no ground for prosecution, of the indictment, and of protective measures stands in a separate text. The question asked here is narrower: how the door is knocked on, what should be in hand, and which sentence strengthens or weakens the file. The corridor after the door is knocked on is the subject of the article on how a public prosecutor's investigation works. Copying the two texts into each other walks the reader twice in the same corridor; it also spoils the intention of the application.
The applicant does not manage the investigation. The instruction to gather evidence belongs to the public prosecutor's office. The work the victim can do is to put forward, by a further petition, the document that stayed missing, and to go to the summons. An approach of "let me stand in for the public prosecutor" carries both a procedural and a security risk. Following the other side on one's own can give rise to an allegation of threat or of insult.
How are the annexes prepared?
Even if the payment slip is a single page, the reverse, the reference number, and the recipient's IBAN should be visible. If there is correspondence, a PDF or an original export is sounder than a cropped screen. If the link of an advertisement is not live, an archived image and a note of the date are added. A photocopy of identity introduces the applicant; if the other side's identity is not there, this blank is written honestly. If there is a witness, the name and surname, and the connection with the event, are enough at first rather than an open address; the detail widens at the stage of the statement.
Giving five copies of the same document under different names inflates the file. A numbered list of annexes should stand plainly, such as "annex 1 the payment slip, annex 2 the chat, annex 3 the advertisement". If a USB or a cloud link will be given, the period of access and a summary of the content are written. If the password of an encrypted file is forgotten in the petition, the annex can in practice be counted as absent.
The first days after the application
The receipt, the document number, or a copy of the minute is the key to every later question. A sentence of "I gave it but I have no record" makes following harder. If a summons to give a statement comes, the date and the place are noted; not going can open a new procedural problem. A writing that comes from the bank, an answer from the platform, or a new payment slip is tied to the file by a further petition. Declaring the perpetrator on social media opens a door both to the confidentiality of the investigation and to a possible debate about insult or false accusation.
A person in the position of suspect can also apply through the same door, saying "I am the victim, my account was taken over". In this case the account must stand clearly between denying the criminal charge and notifying their own loss. A mixed text weakens both the defence and the report.
Frequent mistakes
- Writing the event like an emotional letter and forgetting the date and the amount
- Saying "the documents are with me" without giving the annexes
- Writing only to CİMER and not going to the public prosecutor's office
- Signing the minute without reading it
- Assuming that withdrawal will close the file
- Declaring a person without authority to be the perpetrator and making a pile-on post
- Publishing the file number on social media despite the confidentiality of the investigation
Note: the application can start the investigation; it does not guarantee the result. This text is general information. The features of the concrete event change the assessment.
A note on the legislation
The Criminal Procedure Code regulates how a report and a complaint are made, the public prosecutor's duty of investigation, and the types of statement and of decision. The Turkish Criminal Code defines the type of fraud. Fraud, as a rule, not depending on a complaint does not make the victim's application unimportant; on the contrary, this application often builds the backbone of the file.
Imprisonment and/or a judicial fine is provided for within the statutory frame; the current text of the article should be checked. It is not necessary to have the amount of the penalty memorised in the text of the application. The rules of venue and of subject-matter jurisdiction can become complicated in digital events. In the practice of the Ankara Courthouse the national procedure applies too; the workload can affect the waiting period.
The application petition is not a draft indictment. Naming the elements correctly is enough; it is not necessary to build a ruling. A sentence of "this subparagraph of the Turkish Criminal Code definitely applies", if written without the current text being checked, is both wrong and unnecessary. The work of the petition is to make the event and the evidence visible. The characterisation is the work of the public prosecutor and the court.
Result: the quality of the text of the application
A complaint of fraud is an account given to the right authority, dated, with its document attached, and without exaggeration. The door of a report is open too; the character of a public prosecution, however, reminds that the file will not always close by withdrawal. The later steps of the investigation are the subject of a separate article. The care here helps those steps sit on a sound ground.
This writing is for general information. The assessment can change according to the features of the concrete event. The pages on criminal law, on the offence of fraud, and on how a public prosecutor's investigation works offer a further frame under the related headings.
When the day of the application ends, the work is not counted as finished. As a further payment slip, a new message, or a writing from the bank issues, it should be tied to the file. If the service of a summons is missed, the account can stay half finished. The same care applies for the side of the suspect too: a signature without the minute being read later makes a defence of "I did not say that" harder. Both sides should keep the petition like a dated record of the event, and not like a text for letting out anger.
Where the complaint petition is read from
The complaint is read by being separated from the text of the report and from the document that was added. A complaint day, and a term of imprisonment, that are not written in the file are not added. The petition is not counted as the result of the investigation itself, and the Çankaya office does not change the authority with venue.
A lawyer in Ankara leaves the text of the complaint at the separate door where the return of the money stands.
Conclusion
This writing is for general information. The document, the period, and the procedure of the concrete event must be read separately; there is no promise of a result from memory.