Job Listings on Part-time Brokerage Platforms
Applicants Asked for Personal Information and Deposits... Police Investigation Underway
A case has occurred where a fake homepage and announcement were created by impersonating the secretariat of a local festival in Ulsan to recruit part-time workers and demand personal information and money from applicants, prompting the police to launch an investigation.
According to the police and the Ulsan Soeburi Festival Secretariat on the 20th, on the 8th, a recruitment announcement titled '[Short-term Part-time Job] 20th Ulsan Soeburi Festival Remote Computer Office Assistant' was posted on a part-time job brokerage platform. This announcement was posted using the actual festival secretariat account and stated that it was a 'sweet part-time job' with a daily wage of 130,000 won.
After seeing the announcement and applying, the applicants received KakaoTalk messages from a person who introduced themselves as the 'Person in charge of the Small Business Cultural Support Project of the Ulsan Soeburi Festival Promotion Committee.' This self-proclaimed 'person in charge' told the applicants, "Due to the large number of applicants, I will provide work instructions via KakaoTalk instead of phone calls," and then demanded money under the name of a deposit and personal information.
One applicant, suspicious of this, directly inquired with the festival secretariat and discovered that the announcement was fake, created by hacking the secretariat’s account. The festival secretariat immediately changed the password of the hacked account, reported the incident to the police, and urged citizens to be cautious through the official homepage and social networking services (SNS).
It was confirmed that the group impersonating the festival secretariat even created a fake site modeled after the official festival homepage. This site was still accessible as of 4 p.m. on the 20th and posted an announcement stating support for local small business owners. The announcement also stated that at least 5% of the bid amount must be paid as a 'bid deposit.'
A representative of the Ulsan Soeburi Festival Secretariat told Yonhap News Agency, "It has been confirmed that false press releases related to the small business cultural support project were distributed to some media outlets," and added, "We have never posted announcements for remote office assistant part-time jobs or small business cultural support projects, so please be cautious to avoid damage." However, it is known that no financial damages related to the impersonating group have been reported yet. Therefore, the police have registered this case as a violation of the Information and Communications Network Act rather than fraud and are currently investigating.
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