Fact Revealed: 'Saemaeul Geumgo Employee Withdraws from Mother's Account'

Document Forgery and Password Change Followed by Withdrawal
Immediate Preservation of Withdrawal Amount and Employee Suspension

A Saemaeul Geumgo employee was found to have stolen 50 million won from his mother’s account, as claimed in an online community post.

Last year, a notice regarding the protection of savings and deposits was posted at the MG Saemaeul Geumgo Gyeonghuigung Branch in Jongno-gu, Seoul.

On the 26th, the police and the Saemaeul Geumgo Central Association announced that a new employee embezzled 50 million won from a customer’s deposit account at a Saemaeul Geumgo branch in Seoul the previous day. The new employee, Mr. A, who joined in January this year, changed the customer’s deposit account password and forged the necessary application documents to carry out the embezzlement. The Central Association immediately froze the 50 million won withdrawn from the customer’s account and dismissed the employee from his position. The police are currently investigating the employee. A Central Association official emphasized, “This is an absurd case where the employee changed the customer’s password and forged related documents,” adding, “Since the embezzlement was detected immediately, it is not a systemic problem of the branch.”

Earlier, on the 25th, a post titled “Saemaeul Geumgo employee withdrew money from my mom’s account” was uploaded on an online community. The author, Mr. B, who experienced this shocking incident, said, “My mom was in an uproar saying 50 million won was withdrawn and that she was a victim of voice phishing (telephone financial fraud). I immediately reported it to 112 and went home.”

Mr. B said his mother, who was at a gym, was surprised to receive text messages stating that 9 million won had been withdrawn several times from Saemaeul Geumgo. His mother suspected voice phishing because the withdrawals were made using a phone she had not touched. After reporting to the police, the account was suspended.

However, the bigger problem was that “it was not voice phishing.” Later, the mother received a call from an unknown number, and the caller said, “I am a Saemaeul Geumgo employee. I mistakenly withdrew money and want to apologize. I came to your house, so please meet me.” Mr. B said, “How could an employee know the customer’s account password and withdraw money? There was a KakaoTalk notification on my mom’s phone saying the password was changed by Saemaeul Geumgo. My mom never did that.” He added, “The police officers I reported to said they would verify the identity of the employee even if it wasn’t voice phishing,” and “Our house was almost turned upside down today.”

After learning that Mr. A changed the customer’s deposit account password and forged documents, Mr. B left a comment saying, “They said he did gamble,” and “I think he thought the alert wouldn’t reach my mom.”