Gang Arrested for Recruiting Fake Bank Accounts, Laundering Voice Phishing Proceeds into Cryptocurrency

Five Detained, Seven Booked Without Detention

Messages sent by a group recruiting dummy bank accounts for telephone financial fraud (left) and the seized dummy bank accounts. Provided by Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency

A group that recruited bankbook mule accounts, intercepted billions of won from phone financial fraud (voice phishing) victims, converted the funds into cryptocurrency, and delivered them to a criminal organization has been apprehended by the police.

The Masan Eastern Police Station in Gyeongnam Province announced on October 29 that it had arrested 12 individuals-including the ringleader in charge of recruiting bankbooks, recruiters, money launderers, and account holders lending their names-on charges of violating the Special Act on the Prevention of Telecommunications Fraud. Five have been taken into custody, while seven have been booked without detention.

According to the police, the main managers, a man in his 30s (referred to as A) and a man in his 40s (referred to as B), who were arrested, are accused of instructing a man in his 30s (C), a man in his 20s (D), and another man in his 20s (E)-whom they met through bankbook recruitment ads on online communities in May-to recruit bankbook mule account holders.

C, D, and E are accused of receiving access devices such as account numbers and passwords from the recruited account holders via Telegram and passing them on to the organization.

They are also suspected of laundering criminal proceeds by converting approximately 1.435 billion won, stolen from 22 phone financial fraud victims by the scam organization, into cryptocurrency and delivering it to the organization.

Seven others, including a man in his 20s (F), have been booked without detention on charges of providing their own bank account information to the group in exchange for a certain amount of money.

The upper-level organization reportedly committed phone financial fraud by approaching victims under the pretense of offering low-interest refinancing loans.

The police began their investigation in May after receiving a victim report, obtained statements from account holders who lent their names, and apprehended the group members one by one through field investigations and analysis of closed-circuit (CC) TV footage.

Of the criminal proceeds, 540 million won remaining in the bankbook mule accounts has been frozen, and the police plan to proceed with pre-indictment confiscation procedures in the future.

A police official emphasized, "Regardless of whether you receive compensation, simply lending or transferring your account number and password to another person is itself punishable."

The official added, "Bankbook mule accounts ultimately end up being exploited for various crimes, including phone financial fraud, so you should never give in to any temptation that promises large sums of money in exchange for your account and password."