[Economic Crime 24 Hours] Vansah Employee Cheats Franchise Owners Using Computer Error Excuse... Police Also Stunned by Fraud Scheme

Repeated Crime During Probation for Similar Offense
Fraudulent Sale of Celebrity Fan Meeting Tickets While on the Run

Jeong Ira (59, pseudonym), who runs a 70s and 80s live cafe in Nowon-gu, Seoul, received a phone call from an employee of a credit card VAN (Value Added Network, payment agency) company in early April this year. The VAN employee, Go Mo (22), said, “There is currently a system error in the credit card payment system,” and intimidated her by saying, “For the card company’s approval to be processed, the payment amount must be deposited first.” Not knowing much about the credit card payment system, Jeong transferred all the day’s sales proceeds that day after Go said, “Let’s put out the urgent fire first, and once the system error is resolved tomorrow, I will return the payment.”

However, the next day, there was no further contact from Go. The promised payment was not deposited. When Jeong called several times, Go made excuses, saying, “The system error has not been resolved yet.” After waiting for several days, Go only avoided Jeong’s calls. Jeong inquired with the card company and the VAN company but received no clear answers, and eventually had no choice but to report Go to the police.

The Investigation Team 3 of Nowon Police Station in Seoul, which received the report, confirmed that Go had committed similar crimes not only in Nowon-gu but also in Jungnang-gu, Seoul, and Guri, Gyeonggi Province. In particular, Go had been prosecuted last year for the same method and was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison with a 2-year probation by the Seoul Northern District Court. Having committed another crime during the probation period, Go had not fulfilled the court-ordered community service and already had an arrest warrant issued.

The police found that Go had extorted amounts ranging from 915,000 KRW to 22,680,000 KRW from six credit card merchant owners using this method, and also issued an arrest warrant to locate Go. It was investigated that Go targeted mostly small businesses in the outskirts of Seoul, where the owners were elderly women who were not well informed about the credit card payment system.

When the police investigation began, Go disappeared. Despite continued police tracking, it was difficult to locate Go. However, surprisingly, Go was carrying out another fraud scheme from mid-May, when the police were already pursuing her.

Go posted on a secondhand trading platform that she was selling “actor Byeon Wooseok fan meeting tickets,” received money from victims who contacted her, and then cut off contact. She boldly posted items she did not own, such as baseball tickets and tennis rackets, and defrauded as many as 57 people. It was revealed that Go earned a total of 39,577,000 KRW from this secondhand trading fraud.

Go’s criminal activities were stopped only four months after the investigation began. Having been on the prosecution’s radar for failing to comply with community service orders, Go was arrested in Busan on the 7th after a joint investigation by the prosecution and police. Go, who was sent to detention on charges including fraud, is awaiting trial. A Nowon Police Station official who arrested Go after persistent investigation and tracking said, “It was hard to believe she was in her early 20s given the variety and boldness of her fraud schemes,” and explained, “This crime was also compounded by a systemic problem where VAN sales employees could individually check merchant sales details.”