'90 Million Won Fraud' Minor Phishing Collector Sentenced to Prison

The court sentenced a teenage male cash collector involved in voice phishing who embezzled approximately 90 million KRW to imprisonment.

According to the legal community on the 29th, Judge Kim Yoon-hee of the Seoul Southern District Court Criminal Division 9 handed down a sentence of 1 year and 6 months as the maximum term and 1 year as the minimum term on the 26th to teenage male defendant A, who was indicted on charges of fraud and violation of the Electronic Financial Transactions Act.

According to Article 60 (Indeterminate Sentences) of the Juvenile Act, if a juvenile under 19 years old commits a crime punishable by a fixed-term imprisonment of 2 years or more, the court may impose a sentence with a maximum and minimum term within the range of the punishment.

Defendant A was approached by a voice phishing (telephone financial fraud) organization and took on the role of cash collector. In June of last year, A was indicted for embezzling 10 million KRW in cash from victim B, who was deceived by a voice phishing organization member claiming, "Small business owners can get a government support loan for livelihood stabilization at an annual interest rate of 3.2%, but a stamp tax must be paid to receive the loan," meeting B in the Dong-gu area of Busan.

Also, in the same month, in the Namdong-gu area of Incheon, A received a check card from victim C, who was deceived by a voice phishing organization member impersonating a financial center employee, claiming, "We can provide a 50 million KRW low-interest loan. If you repay a loan from another financial institution immediately, your credit score will improve, enabling the loan. If you send us your check card, we will assist with the repayment process."

A then delivered the check card to an unidentified person designated by the organization in the Guro-gu area of Seoul, and the unidentified person withdrew 80,651,600 KRW in 81 transactions using the check card. It was revealed that A was to receive a daily wage of 150,000 KRW from the organization as compensation for this work.

Thus, A participated in the voice phishing crime and embezzled a total of 90,651,600 KRW.

Judge Kim stated, "Despite the significant damage caused by voice phishing, it is difficult to identify and arrest the organizations, and recovery of damages is unlikely. Therefore, strict punishment is necessary for those who participate even partially in the crime."

He added, "Although A is still a juvenile and has confessed to all the crimes, the damage exceeds 90 million KRW, and there has been no effort to reach an agreement with the victims or to recover the damages," explaining the sentencing rationale.