Scam (fraud) crime rings that had been operating out of Cambodia have shifted their base from Southeast Asian countries to Central Asia. A so-called balloon effect, in which they relocate to evade law enforcement crackdowns, has emerged.
According to the Korean National Police Agency on the 5th, the pan-government joint Transnational Crime Special Response Task Force (TF) arrested 14 scam ring members in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on the 23rd of last month. Five members who were staying in Korea were also caught. All 19 are Korean.
Of the 19 arrested, 14 were detained. The remaining five are either set to apply for arrest warrants or have hearings scheduled for pre-arrest warrant reviews.
The operation was code-named "Ine (INE)," which means needle in Kazakh. It was said to signify popping the balloon effect.
The scam ring initially operated out of Cambodia but moved its base to Kazakhstan in April this year via Vietnam after local crackdowns intensified.
Police analyzed that Kazakhstan was chosen as a base because infrastructure such as computer facilities is relatively well established and it borders China and Kyrgyzstan, making escape by land easier. In fact, two Chinese nationals who are the ring's manager and overall leader have fled to China.
The ring set up a call center in Almaty, posed as the Financial Supervisory Service and government agencies such as the prosecution and courts, and moved victims to lodgings to cut them off from outside contact in a so-called "self-confinement" scheme, and was found to have stolen about 600 million won from 16 victims in Korea.
Police believe that if crimes committed while the ring was in Cambodia are included, the total damage will reach several billions of won. A police official said, "We tracked their movements and conducted a preemptive crackdown before the damage grew," adding, "We expect this will deter other rings preparing to move to third countries."
The Transnational Crime TF said the arrests were the result of a tightly coordinated cooperation system built by the Korean National Police Agency, the National Intelligence Service, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, and Kazakhstan's National Security Committee and Ministry of Internal Affairs.