Police failed to recover more than 100 million won in cashier's checks after taking only the word of a voice phishing cash courier, but prosecutors found the hidden checks through a supplementary investigation. Prosecutors returned the checks to the victim.
The Criminal Division 3 of the Incheon District Prosecutors Office (Director General Jang Yu-gang) said on the 17th that it indicted and detained A, 56, a voice phishing cash courier.
A, in collusion with members of a voice phishing ring, received from victim B, 66, on Nov. 4 last year on a street in Namdong District, Incheon, a paper bag containing one cashier's check issued by Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) with a face value of 134 million won. After that, A handed only the bag to the ring members and hid the check.
Namdong Police Station in Incheon did not conduct searches and seizures of A's residence, vehicle, and other locations when arresting A at home. In a police interview, A claimed, "I threw the check in a trash can in a subway station restroom." Police sent A to the Incheon District Prosecutors Office on the 6th while in detention.
While questioning A, the Incheon District Prosecutors Office pressed for where the check was hidden. They also tried to persuade A by saying it was "the entire fortune of an elderly female victim who worked in a factory for 27 years and raised three children."
A said, "I concealed the check in the vehicle and will submit it." Prosecutors asked police for investigative assistance, and police received the check from A's wife and delivered it to prosecutors.
On the 16th, prosecutors first handed the check to A, then seized it upon voluntary submission, and returned it to victim B in the prosecutor's office.
B said, "It is money scraped together little by little while working for 27 years at a furniture accessories manufacturing factory and raising three children," adding, "After canceling all bank deposits and savings, I feel as if I have come back to life from the despair of my life collapsing into ruin."