Collecting Vehicle Contact Information for Sales Promotion
Police Booked on Suspicion of Trespassing in Joint Building
Men who were inspecting the interiors of vehicles while roaming around an underground parking lot of an apartment in Seoul during the early morning hours were caught by the police. Investigation revealed that they were collecting contact numbers written on the vehicles to promote a sales office.
On the 21st, the official YouTube channel of the National Police Agency posted a video titled "Chasing the vehicle contact number collectors to the end."
The 1 minute and 15 seconds long video shows two men roaming around an underground parking lot of an apartment in Seoul around 3 a.m. They were walking between parked cars, turning on their phone flashlights to look inside the vehicles.
When a security guard on patrol appeared shortly after, the two suddenly started to run away. One of the group hid inside the parking lot, while the other fled outside. Suspecting car theft, the security guard reported to the police.
Police who arrived at the scene later found one man hiding inside the parking lot while patrolling. The man desperately tried to escape and engaged in a chase with the police but eventually gave up and was caught. The accomplice who fled outside the parking lot was found hiding in a nearby park and was arrested by the police after an hour.
Police investigation revealed that they were not stealing cars but illegally collecting contact numbers of residents written on the vehicles. The reason for collecting the contact numbers was to promote the sales office.
The police stated that they have been booked on charges of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Crimes (joint trespassing of a building).
There have been numerous cases where phone numbers publicly displayed on vehicles became a channel for personal information leakage. In 2021, a sales company employee was caught by the police while collecting about 600 phone numbers in an underground parking lot of an apartment in Incheon. In the same year, a man in his 50s was arrested by the police in an apartment complex in Seoul for collecting phone numbers attached to vehicles. It was reported that this man promised to receive a certain amount per phone number and collected car license plates along with phone numbers.
Netizens who watched the video responded with comments such as "The agency that allowed them to work like that is largely at fault," "I don't understand why they look for customer information in parking lots," "My personal information is not a public resource for everyone," and "This is why we need to use safe number services."
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