[Reporter’s Notebook] Accelerating Investigations and Collaboration Are Urgent to Stop Jeonse Fraud from Taking Root

"There is nothing the police can do."

This is what Nam Mo, the so-called "Construction King" of Michuhol-gu, Incheon, accused of a large-scale jeonse fraud, said to the victims. He emphasized that even if they file a complaint with the police, they would not be able to recover their actual deposits, reaching a point where the suspect is trying to persuade the victims.

Jeonse fraud damages are snowballing across the country, but the investigation speed of the police and prosecution is not keeping up. The case of Choi Mo, who embezzled 14 billion won in deposits from 67 tenants in the Seoul metropolitan area including Seoul and Gyeonggi from 2019 to 2022, is still under police investigation. In addition, jeonse fraud damages are occurring one after another nationwide in places such as Dongtan, Guri, and Busan.

The police conducted a nationwide special crackdown on jeonse fraud from July last year to March this year, handing over a total of 2,188 suspects to the prosecution. Currently, the number of jeonse fraud suspects under police investigation reaches 1,749.

Recently, the police announced that they would apply the crime of organizing a criminal group to organized jeonse fraud, but it is regrettable that this policy came only after three young victims of jeonse fraud in Michuhol-gu, Incheon, took their own lives by extreme means.

To prevent jeonse fraud from gaining any foothold, it is important to apply the crime of organizing a criminal group, which allows for heavy punishment. Regarding voice phishing crimes, the police have added charges of organizing a criminal group since 2015, but the prosecution first applied this charge in December 2016. The police must clearly reveal the existence of command and control systems or role divisions during investigations, and the prosecution and courts should focus on uncovering the substantive truth in applying charges and determining criminal proceeds.

This year, when the two-year term expires intensively after the implementation of new lease-related laws including the right to request contract renewal in 2020, tenant damages are expected to increase further. Even within the police, there is a gloomy forecast that the scale of jeonse fraud this year will reach an all-time high.

Investigative authorities must swiftly arrest and investigate to prevent the recurrence of incidents where innocent citizens and young people, the future leaders, take their own lives.