An incident occurred in South Chungcheong Province in which someone posed as a firefighter and forged official documents to force a religious group to purchase fire extinguishers and other firefighting supplies.
According to the South Chungcheong Province Fire Headquarters on the 20th, someone recently sent forged official documents to religious facilities in the province stating, "Under the National Fire Agency's 'winter fire safety measures,' items such as fire-smothering blankets must be stocked," and also sent text messages to induce purchases.
To reassure the institutions, they used meticulous and bold methods such as texting photos of the forged official documents and a government employee ID.
An official at the fire headquarters said, "Fire agencies do not, under any circumstances, send official documents to demand the purchase of specific items or broker sellers," adding, "If you receive such a contact, hang up immediately and report it to 112 or check the facts with the jurisdictional fire station."
Seong Ho-seon, head of the South Chungcheong Province Fire Headquarters, said, "Methods of impersonation, such as forging official documents, are becoming increasingly sophisticated," adding, "We will further strengthen preventive outreach and monitoring to prevent harm to residents."