"Collusion on House Prices and Loan Fraud Beware!"... 30 Gyeonggi-do Crackdown Personnel Urgently Deployed

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province has taken decisive action to eradicate various unfair criminal acts in daily life, such as housing price collusion and loan fraud.

Starting from the 17th, Gyeonggi Province announced that it has deployed a total of 30 personnel to crack down on unfair criminal acts in daily life, including 8 mystery shopping support staff and 22 personnel for collecting illegal advertisements.

The mystery shopping support staff will pose as customers to make phone calls to the phone numbers on illegal advertisements (such as flyers), visit the relevant businesses, collect investigation-related materials, and manage the database (DB).

Last year, the province decided to introduce mystery shopping support personnel for the first time among local governments, and after the first document screening and second interview, finally selected 8 mystery shopping support staff this month.

The personnel collecting illegal advertisements will patrol reported areas through the unfair crime reporting system, as well as busy districts and youth-dense areas within the province, collecting illegal advertisements related to illegal lending businesses or harmful media for youth, securing evidence necessary for investigations. The province recently hired 22 personnel for collecting illegal advertisements.

They will engage in cracking down on unfair acts in daily life for nine months until mid-November.

The province has formed a dedicated investigation team for mystery shopping within the Fair Special Judicial Police Unit to enhance operational effectiveness, and will also deploy them to prevent and respond to various safety accidents that may occur during activities such as hygiene management amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kim Young-soo, head of the province’s Fair Special Judicial Police Unit, said, "We will do our best to eradicate unfair crimes and create a fair society by expanding mystery shopping investigation techniques not only to lending businesses but also to illegal real estate activities and illegal multi-level marketing." He urged, "Please send many reports through KakaoTalk Plus Friend 'Gyeonggi Province Fair Special Judicial Police Unit,' the Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police Unit website, or the Gyeonggi Province call center (031-120)."

The Fair Special Judicial Police Unit was established in October 2018 under Governor Lee Jae-myung’s administration of the 7th local government to realize a fair Gyeonggi without unfair and illegal acts, and last year it uncovered 68 illegal lenders.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.