Increase in Multiple Fraud Cases Including Voice Phishing... Police Form Response Task Force

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The police have stepped up their response to multi-victim fraud crimes targeting unspecified large groups. Multi-victim fraud crimes include telecommunication financial fraud known as voice phishing, cyber fraud, virtual asset-related fraudulent fundraising, other organized crime groups, and similarly organized fraud schemes.

On the 29th, the National Police Agency announced plans to conduct comprehensive investigations by operating the "Multi-Victim Fraud Response Promotion Team," led by the head of the National Investigation Headquarters, and by forming dedicated investigation units at each metropolitan and provincial police agency to establish a focused response system. Additionally, they plan to select key tasks by type of multi-victim fraud and conduct focused and special crackdowns by specialized units.

The police will first carry out year-round continuous crackdowns to intensively arrest members of criminal organizations, including masterminds of domestic and international telephone financial fraud. They will also conduct focused crackdowns on cyber financial crimes such as messenger phishing and body-cam phishing, whose damage scale increases annually. Special crackdowns will be conducted in the first and second halves of the year on crime tools such as burner phones, and strict measures will be taken against eight major crime tools including burner bank accounts, modified relay devices, illegal currency exchange, malicious applications (apps), illegal distribution of personal information, bait messages, and false job advertisements.

Regarding cyber fraud, the police plan to strategically intensify crackdowns as new methods increase, such as investment fraud using fake virtual asset websites, in addition to traditional methods like online group purchase fraud. They will also conduct special crackdowns on various livelihood-damaging financial crimes targeting vulnerable groups under the guise of virtual asset investment, as well as organized fraud such as speculative real estate scams and used car transaction fraud.

The police emphasized that they will not only conduct thorough investigations of crackdown targets but also take measures for practical victim recovery. With the revision of the Act on the Regulation of Concealment of Criminal Proceeds this year, the scope of crimes subject to preservation has been greatly expanded, so dedicated personnel for tracking criminal proceeds will be assigned not only to metropolitan and provincial police agencies but also to police stations. Furthermore, they will strengthen linkage and guidance for victim recovery procedures such as various civil and criminal remedies, and if necessary, take measures to prevent additional damage through on-site dispatch and suspect arrests.

This strengthened response policy by the police comes amid social structural changes such as the development of various communication technologies and the activation of the online economy due to increased non-face-to-face transactions, which have led to a continuous increase in fraud crimes. According to the police, damages from telecommunication financial fraud increased from 639.8 billion KRW in 2019 to 774.4 billion KRW in 2021; virtual asset-related fraudulent fundraising rose from 763.8 billion KRW to 3.1282 trillion KRW during the same period; and cyber fraud increased from 83.9 billion KRW in 2016 to 332.6 billion KRW in 2020. While the number of fraud cases itself rose from 230,169 in 2017 to 292,042 in 2021, damages caused by multi-victim fraud are increasing even more rapidly, according to the police.

A police official stated, "As the responsible investigative agency, we will establish a response system suited to increasingly sophisticated and organized crime patterns, and promote comprehensive policies to strengthen responses including type-specific crackdowns, victim recovery, and prevention through legal and institutional improvements."

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