It has been reported that 3,300 people have been apprehended over the past 1 year and 5 months in investment reading room crimes where perpetrators approached victims by claiming that their principal investments were guaranteed while also providing high returns, subsequently luring them to participate in public chat rooms and stealing money through various scams. Among those apprehended, 734 have been detained. The police advised, "If you are going to invest, be sure to use a verified company directly."
The Korean National Police Agency announced on the 26th that it has conducted a special crackdown on financial crimes that infringe on people's livelihoods from September 2023 to the present, leading to these intermediate results. A total of 7,232 cases of investment reading room crimes were reported.
Investment reading room crimes are primarily carried out online and remotely. The criminal groups are scattered across the nation. The police, facing issues of overlapping investigative powers, merged 7,761 cases of investment reading room crimes (with 14,255 victims) into 172 cases for investigation last year. Among these, 27 cases led to the apprehension of key figures, including the masterminds.
Recently, numerous investment reading room crimes based overseas in countries such as Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines have been confirmed. The police stated, "We have confirmed instances of organized groups targeting domestic individuals and committing fraud in Southeast Asia and are currently investigating."
According to the police, investment reading room organizations have utilized various businesses as means of committing crimes, including real estate, household assets, and unlisted stocks. The methods of luring investments through building rational relationships have also combined with web-based romance scams and investment reading room tactics. An investment reading room organization based in Cambodia and Laos stole 12.2 billion won from 84 victims by posing as women on social media (SNS) from January to August last year and claiming, "I made a lot of revenue from gold futures investing in the U.S. Invest on the gold exchange site."
The National Investigation Headquarters noted, "The scams are so sophisticated that even police officers can become victims," advising that "one must be aware that everything online can be fake." They further emphasized that one should not access links contained in text messages and install apps on smartphones, reiterating that guarantees of both principal investment and high returns are impossible.