A court handed down prison terms and suspended sentences to a group that stole customers' personal information from a mobile carrier dealership and used it to open burner SIM cards. They were found to have abused images of IDs obtained during the phone activation process for crimes.
On the 18th, according to legal sources, Busan District Court Criminal Division 3 single-judge panel Director General Park Ju-young sentenced A, a mobile carrier dealership employee in their 30s who was indicted on charges including violating the Personal Information Protection Act and forging private documents, to eight months in prison. B, a telemarketing store operator in their 50s who was tried alongside A, received a six-month prison term suspended for two years.
A and B were indicted on charges of repeatedly opening prepaid SIMs without authorization using personal information such as image files of resident registration cards of customers who visited the dealership to change handsets between September 2022 and April 2023, and then providing them to unidentified individuals.
An investigation found that A joined the crime after B proposed, "If you obtain personal details and IDs so the SIMs can be activated, I will pay you."
A also faces charges of handing over a corporate account in the name of a company where A serves as an inside director and its seal to a criminal organization, even while knowing it would be used for an investment fraud scheme, causing 50 million won in victim funds to be remitted.
A had a prior record of being sentenced to 10 months in prison for violating the Electronic Financial Transactions Act, and B also was found to have a record of receiving a suspended prison sentence for violations including the Punishment of Tax Offenses Act and forging private documents.