They Said Welfare Support Funds Would Be Provided for Jobs... New Scam Targeting the Elderly 'Warning'

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) issued a consumer alert on the 6th, warning that illegal companies have recently appeared, pretending to be public organizations conducting senior welfare projects under the government, in order to solicit and embezzle funds.

According to the FSS, these private companies lure victims by introducing welfare policies of senior community business cooperatives, claiming that joining as a public cooperative member guarantees the principal and provides job support along with monthly incentives. A characteristic of the subscription process is the requirement to enter personal information (name, date of birth, phone number, etc.) and to deposit a security deposit.

The illegal companies deceive victims with false advertisements stating that the paid public security deposit is fully guaranteed by the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation, and that upon joining as a public cooperative member, job support is provided along with monthly incentives of 1.2% to 1.8% of the paid amount.

They impersonate senior community projects supported by the government by creating fake websites to recruit public cooperative members, placing logos symbolizing the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and stealing organizational charts and bulletin boards from the Korea Senior Citizens Workforce Development Institute, a public institution, causing consumer confusion. In particular, they promote these as government-supported senior policy projects through fake news videos impersonating broadcasting stations on social networking services (SNS) such as YouTube and internet articles, making it difficult to recognize the fraud, so special caution is urged for the elderly.

The FSS stated that cases of soliciting investments by pretending to be government or public organizations promising principal guarantees and high returns are still rampant, so if an investment is induced by promising principal guarantees and high returns, one should suspect possible unauthorized fundraising or fraud.

Additionally, since unauthorized fundraising and fraud companies repeatedly post manipulated false advertisements and information through YouTube, blogs, internet articles, etc. as a means to attract investors, caution is advised not to invest blindly based solely on advertisements.