A group that was withdrawing a large sum with a card under someone else's name at a bank ATM in Gangnam, Seoul, was caught by police. From the bag they carried, 100 million won in cash and dozens of check cards spilled out, and police are investigating possible links to a criminal organization.
The Gangnam Police Station in Seoul said on the 18th that two men in their 30s were arrested on suspicion of violating the Electronic Financial Transactions Act and are under investigation.
According to police, at about 4:21 p.m. on the 11th, a report came in from a bank ATM in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, that "a suspicious man is frantically withdrawing cash." By the time police arrived at the scene, the suspects had already left. On top of the ATM, about 100 10,000-won bills, roughly 1 million won, had been left as is.
Working with the Gangnam District Office control center, police analyzed CCTV and conducted a nearby search, and about 30 minutes after the report, at about 4:56 p.m., arrested two suspects about 100 meters from the crime scene. In the bag they had at the time of arrest, police found about 1.1 billion won in 50,000-won bills and 84 check cards under other people's names.
During questioning, the suspects said, "We planned to withdraw the cash and hand it over to an acquaintance at a nearby office." Based on that statement, police identified the office in question and brought in two people who were on site for additional voluntary questioning.
Police are focusing on the possibility that they are connected to a criminal organization such as voice phishing or an illegal gambling site. Police plan to pay a reward to the tipster who provided the decisive information and to pursue commendations for the district office's CCTV control center staff.