Police Seize 30,000 Devices Including Burner Phones Used in '4 Major Phone Financial Fraud Methods' Over 2 Months

Disposable Phones, Dummy Bank Accounts, Phone Number Manipulators, Illegal Currency Exchange
National Investigation Headquarters Intensive Crackdown
9 out of 10 Disposable Phones Exploited as 'Altteul Phones'
Related Crimes Showing Declining Trend

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] The National Police Agency's National Investigation Headquarters announced on the 28th that it has arrested 3,359 people and detained 116 of them through a special crackdown over two months on the "four major methods of telecommunication financial fraud" used as criminal means in voice phishing and other crimes. In addition, 31,617 criminal tools such as fake bank accounts were uncovered.

Since April 21, the police have been cracking down on major criminal tools including ▲fake phones ▲fake bank accounts ▲illegal phone number manipulation relay devices ▲illegal currency exchange activities. Among the criminal tools detected this time, fake phones were the most numerous at 27,039 units, followed by 4,267 fake bank accounts and 311 illegal phone number manipulation relay devices. Illegal currency exchange activities were also detected in a total of 15 cases, amounting to approximately 31.2 billion KRW. Notably, compared to the same period last year, fake phones increased by 720%, and fake bank accounts by 193%.

Looking at the detailed crackdown status, most fake phones were used through budget carriers (92%), and were activated via prepaid phone subscriptions and SIM card purchases. 97% of the registered users were individuals, among whom foreigners accounted for 59%. Additionally, 561 cases of fake phones registered under corporate names were detected.

Regarding fake bank accounts, the majority were opened at Kookmin Bank with 1,094 cases (25%), NongHyup Bank with 756 cases (17%), and Industrial Bank of Korea with 564 cases (13%). Individuals accounted for 67% of the account holders, corporations 32%, and 13 fake bank accounts were registered under foreign nationals' names.

Illegal phone number manipulation relay devices were mainly cracked down on in the metropolitan area, with 236 cases in the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, 48 in the Gyeonggi Southern Police Agency, and 15 in the Gyeonggi Northern Police Agency. These devices change the caller ID of 070 internet phone calls from overseas to 010 mobile phone numbers, and are exploited in various crimes including voice phishing. Installation sites were mostly one-room apartments (93%), but some cases were recently found where the relay devices were installed in vehicles to evade tracking.

Lastly, illegal currency exchange activities involving the transfer of crime proceeds from telecommunication financial fraud to overseas criminal organizations resulted in 15 cases and 29 arrests, with illegal exchange amounts totaling 31.2 billion KRW. The Busan Police Agency uncovered 15 billion KRW, followed by Jeonbuk Police Agency with 5.7 billion KRW, Gyeonggi Northern Police Agency with 5.5 billion KRW, and Seoul Police Agency with 4.9 billion KRW.

The police explained that alongside these crackdowns, suspending the use of phone numbers exploited in crimes has led to a downward trend in telecommunication financial fraud cases. In fact, the number of such cases dropped from 4,017 in March this year to 2,808 in April and 2,406 in May.

A police official emphasized, "We plan to share the crackdown results with related organizations to promote institutional improvements regarding the activation and opening of fake items. In the second half of the year, we will conduct a second round of crackdowns to eradicate various means used in crimes and eliminate telecommunication financial fraud and related crimes."

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