[Exclusive] "You Could Be Imprisoned" Threatened... 40 Million Won Quickly Taken in 'Coin Phishing' Scam

A Call from a Prosecutor Investigator... Tens of Millions Extorted
Directed to Deposit to 'Phishing Gang' Coin Wallet Address
32 Hours from Crime to Conclusion

Photo of cryptocurrency assets provided by victim A. The assets in the photo amount to 24 million KRW, but A suffered a total coin theft damage worth 40 million KRW. On the right is the coin wallet address sent by the phishing gang. Photo by Seunggon Han hsg@asiae.co.kr

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Seung-gon] A victim who was scammed out of cryptocurrency (coins) by a voice phishing (telephone financial fraud) gang has emerged, prompting the police to launch an investigation. The phishing gang intimidated the victim by claiming to be from the prosecution agency and extorted coins worth about 40 million won.

According to a report compiled by Asia Economy on the 13th, the victim, Mr. A, received a call around 9 a.m. on the 8th from a man estimated to be in his late 30s who identified himself as an investigator from the Seoul District Prosecutors' Office.

The man told Mr. A that his bank account was linked to a "dapo" account crime and that if he was not an accomplice, he needed to prove that his identity had been stolen. He then persuaded Mr. A by saying that since there was no criminal record and the incident did not occur in his area, a simplified investigation by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) would quickly conclude the matter.

Afterward, according to Mr. A, the phishing gang asked about the number of accounts he held rather than personal information such as his current location or physical description. When Mr. A replied that he had several main bank accounts he used regularly, the gang provided a specific website address and told him to check the case details there.

The phishing gang's operation was meticulous. They apparently judged that Mr. A had fallen for their method and pressured him so intensely that he could not even consider that the process was a voice phishing scam.

According to Mr. A, they intimidated him by saying, "Why is the number of accounts different?", "We cannot trust your statement," and "Since a simplified investigation by the FSS is impossible, a warrant will be executed, and you could be detained in jail." Mr. A suspects that the reason they could act so aggressively was that he had entered his resident registration number on the website they provided earlier, allowing the phishing gang to obtain all his personal information.

Mr. A also said, "They said it was a recorded investigation, so I couldn't hang up at will," and "They kept talking rapidly without pause." He added, "They made me read out loud a fabricated warrant so I couldn't think about anything else."

Bitcoin. The photo is unrelated to specific expressions in the article.

At that moment, Mr. A thought he had to cooperate more properly with the phishing gang. Then, the gang accused him of being an accomplice and said they would conduct a so-called 'phone inspection,' instructing him to install an application (app) they provided on his smartphone.

With the mindset of "let's finish the investigation quickly," Mr. A installed the app. Later, suspecting voice phishing, he directly contacted the police and the FSS for inquiries, but his phone had already become a so-called "zombie phone," making it impossible to escape the phishing gang's plan. For example, the police officer he spoke to was not an actual investigator but a member of the phishing gang.

The gang also instructed Mr. A not to inform acquaintances or outsiders about the situation. They pressured him by saying that this matter must be kept strictly confidential and that if he disclosed it, all his acquaintances would also become subjects of investigation.

Subsequently, the phishing gang told Mr. A they would safeguard his assets and provided a cryptocurrency wallet address (an address used to transfer coins, similar to a bank account number) to store his assets. Mr. A handed over all his coin assets to the phishing gang, who then disappeared. The amount extorted corresponds to about 40 million won in cryptocurrency. Additionally, the gang may be committing other crimes using Mr. A's information.

Considering the total time from the start to the end of the crime, the incident began around 9 a.m. on the 8th and ended at 5 p.m. on the 9th, taking only 32 hours.

Mr. A said, "If you listen to suspicious content like mine thinking you should hang up if it seems wrong, you end up unknowingly convincing yourself that you are already a criminal." He added, "With the thought of quickly escaping this unfair accusation, I ended up doing the ridiculous things the scammers told me to do as if they were natural." He concluded, "I hope no one else suffers the same damage as I did."

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