A ring that posed as party officials or impersonated military unit personnel to target self-employed restaurant operators with "no-show" or proxy purchase scams ahead of the last presidential election has been caught.
The Gangwon Provincial Police Agency said on the 3rd that it investigated a total of 560 fraud cases nationwide and arrested 114 domestic and overseas members, including in Cambodia, on charges including fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Economic Crimes, fraud under the Criminal Act, and joining and operating a criminal organization. Of them, 18 were arrested and detained.
The Korean National Police Agency designated the Gangwon Provincial Police Agency as the lead investigative unit for "no-show" fraud late last year and assigned 560 related cases. There were 402 cases of impersonating the military and 158 cases of impersonating political parties or the Presidential Security Service. Total damages amounted to 6.9 billion won. By region, military impersonation cases numbered 80 in Gyeonggi Province, and impersonation of political parties or the Presidential Security Service numbered 32 in Seoul.
The Gangwon police identified the ring's base in a criminal compound in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. They then worked with the Korean National Police Agency, the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO, Interpol), and the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to raid a local call center and arrest suspects.
Those arrested totaled 114, including money mules, managers, general managers, relay device managers, call center members, and domestic ringleaders. About 80% of the suspects were in their 20s to 30s, and four were teenagers. About one in four was a woman. Members arrested in Cambodia joined the crimes on their own through Telegram and other channels.
The overseas ringleader operated a call center in Cambodia and oversaw domestic and overseas money laundering groups and relay device management groups. The call center was divided into a unit impersonating the military or political parties and a unit posing as vendors selling items such as combat rations.
The overseas money laundering group worked with a domestic money laundering group and used a method of remitting most of the proceeds from domestic virtual asset exchanges to overseas virtual asset exchanges. The relay device manager was found to have moved locations around Seoul and Gyeonggi Province to evade law enforcement crackdowns.
They made group reservations at restaurants and then said, "We need to purchase items in advance for the event," demanding that the restaurants buy wine or combat rations from sham vendors they designated. Once the money was deposited, they siphoned it off. They deceived the self-employed with forged official letters and IDs.
Police are tracking an overseas ringleader who has not been caught. Choi Hyun-seok, chief of the Gangwon Provincial Police Agency, said, "Small business owners should make sure to verify the actual contract relationship through the official representative number of the relevant institution," and noted, "Public institutions will never ask for proxy purchases or request money to be prepaid."
He went on, "Many economically vulnerable young people and those new to the workforce take part in these crimes," and said, "Offers at home or abroad that promise abnormally high returns for the level of work will not only lead to harms such as abduction and confinement but also result in severe punishment as accomplices to fraud."