Sesame closed: Russians will no longer be able to pay for services through Turkish accounts

Gamers with Turkish PlayStation accounts have lost the opportunity to pay for a subscription to a popular gaming service and buy in the PlayStation Store using the Ininal payment system. After the Turkish services Ozan and Oldubil had previously removed this feature, Ininal was considered the only reliable way to replenish. The system was also popular among users of Netflix, Spotify, Adobe and other services unavailable in the Russian Federation. The payment system was closed due to the arrest of its founder, Ercan Kork, accused of illegal business activities. What consequences await Russians with their finances frozen on Ininal cards can be found in the Izvestia article.

What happened to Ininal

Russian gamers have lost their last reliable payment method for video games in the PlayStation digital store. For several years, they actively used Turkish virtual accounts, which were paid through the Ininal payment system. Netflix, Spotify, and Adobe were also among the most popular services, noted IT expert Sergey Pomortsev in a conversation with Izvestia.

Turkish authorities arrested the founder of the payment system, Ercan Kork, on March 14 on charges of illegal business activities. Such cards have gained popularity among Russian fans of international services due to the ability to pay for purchases from Russia without proof of identity and additional verification. All payments via Ininal have been suspended, cards do not work even in Turkey, and replenishment through the "Golden Crown" service, which is familiar to many, is not available. The money in the accounts has also been frozen, and now Russians risk losing it forever.

The Ininal payment system became popular among Russians for several reasons: a virtual card could be issued in just 10-15 minutes remotely, and after Visa/MasterCard left the Russian market, it became one of the few available tools for paying for foreign online services, subscriptions, and digital goods, the director of fintech products at Paygine told Izvestia. Roman Tikhonov.

— This situation further complicates the mechanism of purchasing licensed content for Russian gamers. From a legal point of view, the case is ambiguous, and several aspects need to be considered in detail. Formally, the use of virtual accounts (including Turkish accounts) does not contradict the current legislation. However, such actions often contradict the terms of the user agreement (EULA — End User License Agreement) of many platforms, including Sony PlayStation Network," said Artem Ekseev, advisor to the intellectual property practice at EBR Law firm.

If such violations are detected, Sony can legitimately apply sanctions, including account blocking and denial of service. The closure of the Ininal payment system and the freezing of user funds from the legal side can be qualified as force majeure, since this circumstance is beyond the user's power. Therefore, the payment system is primarily responsible for the refund, the lawyer emphasized.

— However, in fact, the legal protection of Russian users will be reduced to zero, because they will need to file an independent claim with a Turkish court. It is unlikely that this will be done by Russians who have several thousand rubles suspended when transferring funds," said Artem Akseyev.

The expert believes that the incident will lead to an even more active development of the gray market in the field of gaming — the purchase of gift cards and keys through various third-party sites and intermediaries. However, here users will face high risks of fraud, lack of legal protection, and difficulties in refunding spent funds if problems arise.

It is possible that Russians will switch to alternative foreign payment services and virtual bank cards (for example, services from CIS countries, the Middle East, and South America), where legislative and sanctions restrictions are less pronounced. There are also risks of blocking here, since international companies, including Sony, regularly check the origin of payments and accounts, says Artem Ekseev.

— It is almost impossible to return the money, since this money will become evidence in a criminal case. The most likely scenario is with confiscation, since most of these accounts were limited to an amount equal to about 8 thousand Russian rubles (in order to manage the remainder, the identity had to be confirmed at the office). Many people used the account for one—time purchases, that is, they transferred funds and immediately used them," said Fyodor Sidorov, founder of the School of Practical Investment.

How to refund money from Ininal

At the moment, the Istanbul prosecutor's office has already seized assets worth about 6.9 billion Turkish liras from the businessman. Among them are 17 residential buildings, 13 cars, nine land plots and assets of 23 companies associated with the arrested businessman. The companies include both Pozitifbank and Payfix, as well as Ininal. Lawyers are already warning about the problem of withdrawing funds from the accounts of the blocked service.

Many Russian gamers using Turkish accounts expect Ininal to come under the control of another business and resume its work, Anton Gorelkin, deputy head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, told Izvestia. However, the new owners of the service may change their policy towards foreign clients, as Oldubil, another Turkish neobank, did at the time.

According to independent lawyer Andrey Mitrokhin, it will be extremely difficult, almost impossible, to return the money, since it is blocked as a result of the initiation of a criminal case. Moreover, the expert notes, the Turkish authorities have already begun the procedure for the confiscation of funds on blocked accounts within the framework of the law on the prevention of laundering of proceeds from crime. The police have the right to restrict assets even if their owners are not directly involved in illegal actions.

"Due to the shutdown of the Ininal payment system and the freezing of assets, it is currently very difficult, almost impossible, to return the funds on these cards, since they are frozen," added Vladimir Chernov, analyst at Freedom Finance Global.

According to Roman Tikhonov from Paygine, the return of frozen funds in the context of a criminal investigation is a difficult and lengthy task. Many lawyers advise joining a class action and involving specialists familiar with the jurisdiction of Turkey, as individual attempts can be expensive and unrealizable.