A new type of illegal private lending scheme has emerged that forges mobile phone rental contracts and then uses them as collateral to make borrowers take out high-interest loans with annual rates exceeding 150%. Authorities also uncovered a Ponzi-like scheme that siphoned off investment funds by promising more than 20% in monthly returns if people invested in a business selling eSIMs (embedded SIMs) to travelers.
The Financial Supervisory Service said on the 20th that it issued a consumer alert after identifying these new types of everyday financial crimes in cooperation with the Gyeonggi Southern Provincial Police Agency and the Seoul Yeongdeungpo Police Station.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the illegal private lending scheme exploiting mobile phone rentals operates by steering people in need of funds to register as delivery-service business operators. The perpetrators then signed mobile phone rental contracts in the victims' names and executed high-interest loans using them as collateral.
In some cases, the perpetrators pretended to rent 10 phones with a total market value of 18 million won and forced repayment of 170,000 won per day for 200 days, imposing interest of about 160% per year. In reality, they did not deliver the phones or activate the SIMs, but they had the victims sign confirmation forms stating they had received the physical phones to make it look like a legitimate contract.
If the victims failed to repay principal and interest, the perpetrators transferred the rental receivables to another company to continue collections. They also exploited the appearance that the rental contract was legitimate to threaten victims or pressure them by citing civil and criminal liability.
Investment fraud using eSIMs is also on the rise. The scam ring recruited investors by promoting that participating in a business selling eSIMs online to travelers and foreigners could generate more than 20% in monthly revenue. They set up virtual storefronts on their own online platform to make it look like sales revenue was occurring and initially paid out actual returns to build trust before inducing additional investments. Later, when victims requested withdrawals of returns, the scammers delayed payouts citing reasons such as tax payments, then shut down the website and disappeared.
The FSS urged people to suspect illegal private lending if a lender conditions a loan on registering a business or signing a sham rental contract. It also emphasized caution, noting that investments promising both principal guarantees and high returns are highly likely to be unregistered deposit-taking schemes. If you receive abnormal demands during a transaction or suspect fraud, you should immediately stop the transaction and report it to the police or the FSS.