A man in his 20s who threatened a woman with deepfake synthetic images after being rejected for a relationship by her, whom he met at a private academy, was handed over to the prosecution in custody.
According to the police on the 22nd, the Gangnam Police Station in Seoul sent Mr. A, a man in his 20s accused of violating the Act on the Punishment of Stalking Crimes, the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes, and the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes for retaliatory threats, to the prosecution in custody on the 13th.
Mr. A is accused of continuing to contact a peer woman he met at a private academy since August, even after she rejected his dating proposal. When the woman said she would take legal action, Mr. A allegedly threatened to distribute deepfake pornographic videos using the woman’s photo from the academy’s website to those around her.
The police, who launched an investigation following the victim’s report, urgently arrested Mr. A on the 10th and transferred his custody to the prosecution on the 13th, four days after receiving the case.
Meanwhile, according to the National Police Agency, the number of deepfake-related cases reported to the police over the past three years was 156 in 2021, 160 in 2022, and 180 in 2023. This year, from January to September, a total of 318 suspects were arrested for deepfake sexual crimes. By age group, teenagers accounted for the largest share with 251 suspects, or 78.9%. This was followed by 57 in their 20s (17.9%), 9 in their 30s (2.8%), and 1 in their 40s (0.3%). As deepfake crimes spread, the police launched a special intensive crackdown starting on the 28th of last month.
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