"Mom, my phone is broken"... Messenger phishing scammer caught laundering money with gold

Arrest of New Type Voice Phishing Criminal Laundering Stolen Money into Gold
Victims Purchase Pure Gold via Internet Banking and Resell to Convert into Cash for Fraudulent Gains

Jinju Police Station, Gyeongnam [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Kim Gun-chan] A woman in her 40s involved in a new type of voice phishing who launders messenger phishing proceeds into gold and collects them has been arrested by the police.

Jinju Police Station in Gyeongnam announced on the 16th that they have arrested voice phishing suspect A (40) on charges of violating the Act on the Prevention of Telecommunications Financial Fraud for laundering messenger phishing proceeds into gold, converting them into cash, and delivering them to the mastermind.

Messenger phishing is a scam method where criminals impersonating family or acquaintances inform the victim of unavoidable situations such as a damaged mobile phone and induce them to click on a malicious link, then steal personal information to embezzle funds.

According to the police, A is believed to have conspired with unidentified members of a telecommunications financial fraud organization headquartered in Thailand. They mainly targeted parents in their 50s to 60s, approaching victims via KakaoTalk messenger by impersonating their children.

They used tactics such as saying, "Mom, Dad, my phone is broken, I can't make calls, to get compensation for the phone, I need your ID, account number, and password," and then requested and received personal information.

When the victim clicks on the link sent by the voice phishing criminal, claiming it is "to receive compensation for the broken phone," a remote control program like TeamViewer is installed on the victim's smartphone. The voice phishing criminal then uses the victim's financial information obtained earlier to access the victim's internet banking.

Subsequently, the criminal purchases 39 don of gold from a gold seller who is a secondhand goods trader using the victim's internet banking, resells the gold at other gold shops to convert it into cash, and remits the embezzled money to the mastermind abroad.

After receiving the damage report on April 6, the police conducted an investigation and apprehended the suspect on the 9th, one month after the incident occurred, and detained them on the 11th.

Jinju Police Station stated, "In this case, the suspect was a collector of a new type of voice phishing that collected messenger phishing proceeds in gold, targeting parents of our generation, the so-called mom and dad." They added, "Messenger phishing crimes are malicious crimes that impersonate victims' children and exploit their feelings. We urge the public to actively report to help apprehend related criminal organizations."

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