Gyeonggi Special Judicial Police Detect 113 Illegal Acts in 3 Years Through Mystery Shopping Investigation

An investigator dispatched through mystery shopping investigation techniques is uncovering illegal activities on site.

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province has uncovered 113 cases of illegal activities over the past three years through the investigative technique known as 'Mystery Shopping.'

Mystery Shopping is an investigative method where undercover agents pose as customers to call phone numbers on illegal advertisements, visit the relevant businesses, collect investigation materials, and manage databases (DB) to detect unlawful acts.

The Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police Unit announced on the 14th that since 2019, it has hired around 15 mystery shopping investigators?the first local government to do so?and detected 28 cases in 2019, 36 in 2020, and 49 in 2021, totaling 113 violations over three years.

For example, to investigate illegal lending through flyers and internet portal sites, mystery shopping investigators directly approached lending companies as customers to collect on-site evidence related to unregistered lending activities, unregistered lending advertisements, and interest collection exceeding the legal maximum rate.

Additionally, to crack down on illegal taxi operations known as 'colttwigi,' where private or rental cars are used, mystery shopping investigators posed as passengers to catch illegal activities on the spot, achieving significant results.

Following these achievements, the Special Judicial Police Unit plans to expand the team to 20 members, including mystery shopping investigators and online monitoring agents. Online monitoring agents will watch related sites to secure investigative evidence against recent frequent online crimes such as illegal private financing, real estate fraud, multi-level marketing crimes (coin sales, stock advisory rooms), and proxy purchases of harmful substances for youth.

Separately, starting next month, the Special Judicial Police Unit will deploy 40 dedicated personnel to collect illegal advertisements, which are crucial evidence in mystery shopping investigations. These personnel will patrol busy areas and youth-dense districts within the province to gather illegal lending and youth-harmful media advertisements. The number of illegal advertisements collected last year reached approximately 378,000, an increase of about 28% compared to the previous year.

Kim Young-soo, head of the Gyeonggi Province Fair Special Judicial Police Unit, emphasized, "With the economic downturn caused by COVID-19 worsening recently and crime types becoming more diverse and sophisticated, there is concern about the spread of unfair criminal activities. We will strive to minimize harm to residents through the development of various investigative techniques including mystery shopping, strengthening online crime monitoring, and actively collecting illegal advertisements."

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