[2025 Audit] "Damages from Illegal Investment Leading Rooms Reach About 1.3 Trillion Won in the Past 2 Years"

Heo Young of the Democratic Party:
"Urgent Need for Comprehensive Government Response to Online Scams"

It has been revealed that the damages from illegal investment recommendation chat rooms (investment leading rooms) reported to the police over the past two years have reached approximately 1.3 trillion won.

Given that a significant number of victims in the recent kidnapping and confinement cases involving Koreans in Cambodia were found to be involved in investment leading rooms and romance scams (fraud disguised as romantic relationships), there have been urgent calls for a comprehensive government-level response.

According to data analyzed by Assemblyman Heo Young of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, there were 14,629 reports related to illegal investment leading rooms filed with the National Police Agency from September 2023 to last month, with damages totaling 1.2901 trillion won.

During the same period, there were 12,722 cases solved and 5,181 individuals apprehended.

The National Office of Investigation of the National Police Agency launched a special crackdown on investment leading rooms in September 2023. However, since then, an average of more than 580 cases have been reported each month, with monthly damages exceeding 50 billion won on average.

The scale of damages from romance scam crimes was also significant. Since the police began compiling statistics in February last year, there have been 2,830 reported cases over the past 1 year and 8 months, with damages amounting to 167.5 billion won. The number of cases solved was 895, and 309 individuals were apprehended.

Assemblyman Heo stated, "Online scam crimes such as illegal investment leading rooms have evolved beyond simple financial fraud into crimes against persons, reaching a level that requires a national crisis response." He added, "The Office for Government Policy Coordination should take the lead in quickly establishing an international crime response system in collaboration with the National Police Agency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and financial authorities."