Receiving Money Only and Then 'Disappearing'... Imprisonment for Small-Amount Golf Equipment Fraud

Posting Fake Listings on Online Secondhand Market Sites
Repeatedly Extorting Victim Losses Without Shipping Items
"Be Cautious When Prices Are Significantly Lower Than Market Value"

Mr. A posted an advertisement in July 2019 at a local PC cafe, stating that he was selling golf equipment through an online secondhand trading site. The post claimed that he was selling a distance meter used on golf courses at a price lower than the market rate. He told Mr. B, who contacted him, that he would ship the product upon receiving the payment. Mr. B transferred 300,000 won and 225,000 won to Mr. A's account in two installments but never received the product.

According to the legal community on the 27th, the court handling this case identified a total of 13 victims of Mr. A's fraudulent sales. Mr. A extorted just over 5 million won from these individuals over 17 occasions using similar tactics through the secondhand trading site.

After receiving the money, Mr. A not only failed to send the products but also committed double fraud by using Mr. C, who posted similar advertisements claiming to sell the same products. Mr. A gave Mr. C the contact information of two people and proposed that if Mr. C sent three items to them, he would pay 310,000 won per item, totaling 930,000 won. Mr. A had already deceived these two individuals into paying 500,000 won each by pretending to sell golf equipment. However, having already spent all the deposited money and being in poor financial condition, Mr. A could not pay the 930,000 won even if Mr. C sent the items.

The court concluded, "Mr. A repeatedly committed fraud against multiple victims using the same method," and stated, "there has been no compensation for the victims, nor is there any indication that efforts are being made to do so." The court sentenced Mr. A to six months in prison and ordered him to compensate Mr. B for 200,000 won and Mr. C for 930,000 won.

The court explained the reasoning behind the verdict, saying, "Mr. A has admitted to all the crimes in this case and is remorseful. The gains from each crime are not considered substantial, and the defendant has no prior record of similar offenses."

As online secondhand trading has become more active, similar fraud cases using golf equipment as bait continue to occur. In 2017, Mr. D posted an advertisement on an internet site selling a used driver and received a total of 18,471,200 won from victims over 68 occasions but did not send the products, leading to prosecution. Although the court found Mr. D's crime to be serious, considering that most victims reached settlements, he was sentenced to six months in prison with a two-year probation, 40 hours of community service, and probation supervision.

In the same year, there was also a fraud case where the suspect posted an advertisement selling golf clubs on a secondhand golf equipment trading site and embezzled 22,520,000 won from victims over 46 occasions. The suspect had a prior record of fraud and was sentenced to two years in prison for this case.

Earlier, according to data submitted by the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee member Yoo Dong-su of the Democratic Party of Korea (Incheon Gyeyang-gap) from the National Police Agency, the amount of damage from secondhand trading fraud surged from 20.215 billion won in 2014 to 360.61 billion won in 2021.

A police official stated, "In cases of internet product fraud, even if victims report the fraud to financial institutions, it is difficult to freeze payments, leading to the spread of damage," and added, "When purchasing items online at prices lower than market value or from posts without a sales history, there is a high probability of fraud, so special caution is necessary."