On December 3, KST, the Busan Police Agency announced that it had busted a joint Korean-Chinese crime syndicate for swindling ₩122 billion KRW (about $ 86.3 million USD) from 84 different individuals.
The group reportedly impersonated foreign women of Korean descent on social media to lure victims into fake cryptocurrency and gold investments. The police have arrested a total of 12 members of the group, including a Korean recruiter and a Chinese manager.
The syndicate recruited Korean citizens in their 20s and 30s and relocated them to Cambodia and Laos to train them in different scamming techniques. These recruits then targeted individuals through social media while posing as foreign women of Korean origin. They would slowly build trust through conversations lasting over a week and persuade the victims to put their money into fake crypto or gold trading platforms.
These victims were then guided to fraudulent websites and forced to invest their money. According to the police, the amounts duped from each victim range from ₩1.00 million KRW (about $ 708 USD) to ₩20.0 billion KRW (about $ 14.2 million USD). When some of the victims expressed suspicion, the scammers would manipulate them emotionally. If any of them asked for returns, the scammers would demand more money for taxes and fees before disappearing with all the funds. The victims were mostly men aged between 20 and 70, and they have collectively lost ₩122 billion KRW (about $ 86.3 million USD) since January.
The scam surfaced after a victim reported it to the police, which began a probe in April this year. Since then, authorities have arrested over 20 syndicate members. However, the six Chinese individuals identified as the masterminds behind this operation are still at large, and Interpol notices have been issued for them.
Source: DongA Ilbo
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