Tracked Down and Arrested After Prosecution Orders Correction Following Police Suspension of Investigation
A man in his 60s who participated in a "no-show scam" targeting self-employed individuals by impersonating correctional officers and others has been indicted and taken into custody for his role as a money launderer.
On September 5, Yonhap News reported that the Gangneung Branch of the Chuncheon District Prosecutors' Office indicted Mr. A (age 62) on fraud charges for acting as a money launderer in a "no-show scam" where he posed as a correctional officer and targeted self-employed individuals.
Mr. A allegedly asked victims to make proxy purchases of goods, then took only the money, used it to buy cryptocurrency, and transferred it to the wallet of a no-show scam ring member at an overseas currency exchange. He is accused of collecting a total of 63.55 million won from five people between April 16 and April 18.
This no-show scam involved telling victims, "If you purchase goods on my behalf, I will pay you later," then introducing another ring member who pretended to be a goods seller, inducing the victim to deposit money to this person, and then stealing the funds. This is a new type of voice phishing scheme.
Previously, while investigating the case, the Gangneung Police Station decided to suspend the investigation on June 20, stating that Mr. A did not reside at his registered address and could not be reached by phone.
The prosecution, upon reviewing the case, determined that Mr. A had already served a prison sentence for acting as a cash collector in a previous voice phishing case and reoffended during his parole period. Based on this, they concluded that he was deeply involved in the no-show scam, not merely lending his account name.
The prosecution applied for a telecommunications warrant for real-time location tracking and an account warrant to secure transaction records, and requested the police to take corrective action to locate Mr. A. In response, the police executed the telecommunications and account warrants, conducted further investigation, apprehended Mr. A, and referred him to the prosecution after taking him into custody.
During the police investigation, Mr. A claimed, "I did not know the money was from voice phishing victims," but eventually admitted to all charges under the prosecution's questioning.
It was revealed that losses from so-called "no-show scams," in which public institutions or companies are impersonated to place fake phone orders, have already exceeded 40 billion won this year alone. According to data on the status of no-show scams by region, submitted to Assemblyman Park Junghyun of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee by the National Police Agency, there were 2,892 no-show scam cases nationwide from January to July this year.
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