"200% Profit in One Day"... Investment Scams Surge Amid Investment Fever

Luring Customers with Large Profits... Disappearing After Throwing the Bait
Promoting in Crowded KakaoTalk Rooms... Even Impersonating Experts
Fraud Crimes Increasing Daily... Cryptocurrency-Related Crimes Up 220% Annually
Experts Say "Government Should Widely Publicize Methods to Verify Investment Information"

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] Jo Yong-hyun (32, pseudonym), who lives in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, recently suffered a major loss after investing through an acquaintance he met online. What Jo was introduced to was FX margin trading, where multiple currencies are bought and sold simultaneously to gain exchange rate profits. He first sent 5 million won to the person who introduced himself as a trader. In fact, the next day, a profit of 1 million won was credited, and hearing that the more the amount increased, the faster the profit realization, Jo handed over an additional 5 million won. The profit shown on the proprietary program used for trading nearly doubled in a few days. However, one day, a message appeared saying the trading had been suddenly suspended. When he inquired, the company explained it was a system error and that additional funds needed to be deposited to resume trading. But even after receiving the additional funds, the situation persisted, and they avoided Jo's contact for a while before eventually disappearing.

Fraud schemes exploiting the investment craze are once again rampant. They lure investors by claiming they can generate huge profits through FX margin trading or Bitcoin. Most explanations, such as investing in cryptocurrency through an overseas-based AI trading system to generate profits, lack sufficient evidence, but many fall for it unknowingly due to certifications of actual profits or testimonies from other participants who claim to have earned profits. Experts believe these individuals are likely part of a gang acting as promoters. To emphasize their credibility, they use names like ‘exchange,’ ‘leading room,’ or ‘OO investment’ and even adopt seemingly credible titles such as ‘Seoul OO branch XXX analyst.’ Recently, they have been targeting the general public by posting investment room links in open chat rooms with many participants.

A gang that swindled victims out of hundreds of millions of won by promising high returns through various financial technologies was also caught by the police. The Yeonje Police Station in Busan arrested six people, including a man in his 20s identified as the ringleader A, and booked five others without detention for investigation. They are accused of deceiving 52 victims from August 2020 to recently by proxy betting on Nanum Lotto Powerball and FX margin trading, promising high returns, and embezzling 770 million won. This gang also created multiple Naver cafes using profiles of actual financial experts, such as ‘OOOO asset manager’ or ‘OOO CEO,’ to attract members. There are numerous cafes and open chat rooms created by victims for joint countermeasures against such damage.

Fraud crimes are on the rise. The number of fraud cases increased by 31.5% from 231,489 cases in 2017 to 304,472 cases in 2019. Considering that the total number of intelligent crimes during this period was 381,533, most of these intelligent crimes were fraud. The number of arrests related to cryptocurrency crimes also increased from 62 cases in 2018 to 103 cases in 2019, and 337 cases last year, an average annual increase of 220%. The number of people arrested during the same period rose from 139 to 289 and then to 537.

Professor Kim Do-woo of the Department of Police Administration at Gyeongnam University said, "To avoid becoming a target of crime, one should carefully consider why such investment information came only to them, and the government needs to widely promote ways to verify investment information."

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