According to the definition by the Banks Association of Turkey, a collusive transaction carried out by misusing POS devices, debit cards, or credit cards for purposes other than their intended use is called a fictitious transaction.
Banks that detect such transactions carried out through merchants apply to the Fictitious Transaction Evaluation Committee established within the Banks Association of Turkey. As a result of the Committee's evaluation, penalties are imposed on merchants found to have carried out fictitious transactions, and they are placed on a blacklist.
Under what circumstances is a merchant considered to have carried out a fictitious transaction?
- If there is a finalized court ruling;
- If there is an administrative decision issued by a public institution or organization;
- If there is a decision by the Fictitious Transaction Evaluation Committee, the merchant is deemed to have carried out a fictitious transaction.
So, what penalties are imposed on a merchant found to have carried out a fictitious transaction?
- All terminals (POS) belonging to the merchant are deactivated.
- Banks may not sign agreements with the merchant or assign it a POS for a period of one year.
- If the same act is repeated within five years, the one-year period may be extended to three years.
In its professional regulatory decision on fictitious transactions, the Banks Association of Turkey aims to have the sub-merchants (sub-dealers) separated out for merchants that allow their assigned physical and virtual POS terminals to be used through a dealer/sub-dealer relationship.