'Winning Number Prediction' Sites Deceived 60,000 People Over 10 Years... Operating Group Making 60 Billion Won Arrested

Accumulated about 60 billion won over 10 years
Luxurious life by renting one floor of a hotel with criminal proceeds

The Northern Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency arrested a total of 52 individuals involved in operating a number recommendation website and detained four main suspects.

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Kim Gun-chan] An organization that operated a number recommendation site claiming to predict lottery winning numbers and collected about 60 billion KRW over 10 years has been arrested by the police.

The Northern Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency announced on the 9th that they arrested a total of 52 people on charges of fraud and violation of the Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising, and detained four main suspects including the ringleaders Mr. A (58) and Mr. B (45).

Mr. A and others are accused of operating 92 "lottery winning number prediction service sites" from July 2012 to June of this year, inducing victims to subscribe to high-priced products through false advertisements, and embezzling 60,410 victims for a total of 60.7 billion KRW.

According to the police, they used a method of posting photos on the sites that were photoshopped with major winning lottery tickets such as Lotto and winning payment statements to lure victims. They also deceived victims by claiming there was a service that provided numbers with higher winning probabilities, inducing payments of hundreds of thousands of KRW. Additionally, they created about 1.2 million fake IDs to post false high-value winning reviews.

Investigation results revealed that the lottery numbers advertised as predicted through AI analysis were actually numbers arbitrarily combined by five members of the organization. It was also confirmed that the ringleader Mr. A rented an entire floor of a hotel and lived a luxurious life with the criminal proceeds he had earned. The average damage per victim was about 1 million KRW, with some cases reaching up to about 70 million KRW.

After receiving a tip-off, the police began investigating victims who filed complaints with the Korea Consumer Agency from April. Tracking the organization’s real estate, deposits, and vehicles, they obtained a seizure order for 13 billion KRW of criminal proceeds from the Uijeongbu District Court on the 20th of last month. The relevant sites have been shut down since the 2nd in accordance with the decision of the Korea Communications Standards Commission.