New crime organizations that lured investors by creating fake over-the-counter stock trading sites and deceived them into believing they could earn high returns on the listing date by purchasing unlisted stocks at a low price have been uncovered by the police, reportedly embezzling 9.4 billion won.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Criminal Investigation Unit announced on the 5th that they apprehended 43 individuals, including the ringleaders and members of three phishing organizations, on charges of organized crime and violating the law on refunds for telecommunication fraud.
Two developers and brokers, who are accused of creating and selling the fake sites for these organizations, have also been transferred to the prosecution while in custody.
According to the police, the ringleaders of the three organizations and their members are accused of setting up call centers in the Seoul and Gyeonggi area since February of last year and defrauding 182 people out of 9.4 billion won under the pretext of stock payments. They allegedly impersonated employees of stock issuing companies, lured victims to join the fake site with offers of free stock allocation or early delivery, and deceived the victims by claiming, "If you buy stocks that are certain to be listed at a low price, you can see high returns on the listing date" and "The listing date is approaching."
They subsequently operated the organization in a 'bubble' manner by disappearing after the arbitrarily set listing date and establishing new call centers. To deceive victims into thinking they actually owned purchased stocks, they created and displayed forged documents such as fake contracts and fake shareholder lists.
It was found that 92% of the 182 victims were in their 50s and older. The average amount lost per victim was approximately 50 million won, with the highest loss amount reaching 900 million won.
Although these organizations were different criminal groups without direct connections, both the developer who created the fake site and the broker who sold it were the same. The developer planned to sell a fake site modeled after an official stock trading site to a phishing organization and received orders for developing phishing sites through brokers starting from February of last year, having them custom-made and provided.
After creating and handing over the fake site, they continued to support phishing crime organizations to proceed with their activities by changing domains, earning about 40 million won each month. Two brokers, having connected with the developer through local senior-junior relationships, sold 19 fake sites to 14 phishing organizations, reportedly earning 30 million won per month.
A police official noted, "If you rely on investments through unauthorized channels such as formally licensed financial companies, there is a high possibility of becoming a target for criminal organizations," urging people to be particularly cautious when investing.