"You Must Verify Suspicious Order Requests with the Fire Department"
Recently, a series of fraudulent schemes involving impersonation of fire agencies to request proxy purchases of goods have occurred, resulting in financial losses totaling 114 million won for related companies?one company lost 80 million won, and another lost 34 million won.
"This is the firefighter from the 119 Safety Center who contacted you earlier. I am looking for an automated external defibrillator that can be shipped out today." This is the method used by the perpetrators who impersonated agencies to defraud the companies.
According to the Sejong Northern Fire Station on July 4, on July 1, Company A located in Jochiwon-eup received a phone call. The caller, identified as Mr. B, introduced himself as a firefighter from the 119 Safety Center and requested a proxy purchase for the supply of an automated external defibrillator (AED). On July 2, the following day, Company C in Eojin-dong received a similar call from Mr. D, who also claimed to be a firefighter.
Mr. B and Mr. D each sent a forged official purchase confirmation document and a business card of a specific company dealing in defibrillators to Company A and Company C via KakaoTalk, requesting prompt delivery. Company A and Company C, after confirming that the forged documents bore the official seal of a fire agency, transferred the purchase amount in installments to the companies that had contacted them.
However, the purchased goods did not arrive by the promised time, and the companies introduced by Mr. B and Mr. D became unreachable. It was then that the companies realized they had been defrauded.
Company A and Company C contacted the Sejong Northern Fire Station to confirm the purchase request and belatedly recognized they had been victims of fraud, subsequently reporting the incident to the police.
The Northern Fire Station announced plans to strengthen publicity and cautionary guidance to prevent similar incidents in the future.
A fire agency official stated, "Fire agencies do not request proxy purchases of goods. If you encounter a suspicious situation, please report it to the fire agency," and added, "Recently, there has been a nationwide increase in cases of impersonation of public institutions, so we urge everyone to exercise particular caution."
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