The head of an organization that carried out so-called "retaliation-for-hire," such as taking money to splatter filth at other people's homes, has been sent to prosecutors in custody.
According to police on the 3rd, the Yangcheon Police Station in Seoul sent a man in his 30s, a person surnamed Jeong, to the prosecution in custody on charges including organizing a criminal group, violating the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection by interfering with an information and communications network, housebreaking, property damage, intimidation, and violating the Personal Information Protection Act.
Jeong is accused of opening a "retaliation terror" request channel on Telegram, taking money, and in January splattering filth and scrawling profanities on apartment entrances in Yangcheon District, Seoul, and Siheung, Gyeonggi Province.
A police investigation found that Jeong had a person surnamed Yeo, a member of the organization in his 40s, get a job under false pretenses as a customer service agent at a Baemin subcontractor and ordered Yeo to look up addresses without authorization for the crimes. After getting hired at the company, Yeo was found to have looked up about 1,000 items of personal information. Yeo also was sent to prosecutors in custody on the 2nd.
From January this year to on the 2nd, a total of 53 retaliation-for-hire crimes were reported nationwide. Of these, 40 people involved in 45 cases were booked. In Jeong's organization, four people, including Jeong and a person identified as A, have been arrested.
Police are tracking the higher-ups of the retaliation-for-hire organization and are currently investigating links to criminal groups such as voice phishing rings. They also plan to charge those who requested the retaliation with solicitation and punish them.