Jeju Police Intensify Crackdown on Phone Financial Fraud... Arrests Up 260%

Published 13 Oct.2021 10:02(KST)

[Jeju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Hwang Jeongpil] The Jeju Provincial Police Agency (Chief Kang Hwangsu) announced on the 13th that it conducted intensive crackdowns for two months from April 26 to June 30 to eradicate telephone financial fraud crimes.

As a result, occurrences decreased by 30%, and arrests increased by 260%, demonstrating their utmost efforts in responding to telephone financial fraud crimes.

This year, 398 cases of telephone financial fraud crimes occurred, with damages amounting to 7.7 billion KRW. In particular, face-to-face extortion cases accounted for 215 cases, making up 54% of the total crimes.

Most suspects arrested for telephone financial fraud crimes are in their 20s to 30s, including students, full-time housewives, and unemployed individuals, who mostly participated in the crimes after seeing high-paying part-time job advertisements on part-time job recruitment websites.

The Jeju Police are operating a voluntary surrender period until January 11 next year for members involved in telephone financial fraud crime organizations to eradicate these crimes, induce organizational disruption, and conduct large-scale arrests of ringleaders.

Eligible individuals for voluntary surrender include those who have participated in telephone financial fraud crime organizations involved in call centers, caller ID spoofing (manipulating the number to appear different from the actual one), malicious app creation and distribution, or those who have knowledge of internal information related to these crimes.

Chief Kang Hwangsu stated, “In the second half of the year, we will do our best to prevent and arrest telephone financial fraud crimes so that economically vulnerable citizens, suffering due to COVID-19, do not endure double hardships from such fraud.”

He added, “We urge those involved in telephone financial fraud crimes or those who know acquaintances involved to actively surrender and report. Especially, those who surrender during this period will be investigated without detention in principle, and cooperation in providing key information about ringleaders and internal matters will be positively reflected in sentencing.”