"Ukrainian Deployed Soldier"… 12 Members of Romance Scam Gang Caught
Impersonating Identity to Build Trust and Demand Money
Embezzled 3.7 Billion KRW from 31 Victims
Among the arrested suspects, a domestic runner is seen withdrawing the stolen money from a bank ATM machine. / Provided by Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency
View original image[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Narcotics Crime Investigation Unit announced on the 15th that they have arrested 12 members of an international 'Romance Scam' fraud organization that impersonated soldiers and doctors deployed to the Ukraine war on social networking services (SNS) to build trust and then embezzled billions of won, detaining six of them.
According to the police, from November last year to October this year, the suspects deceived victims by falsely claiming that customs fees were required to send rewards and compensations received from the government, collecting amounts ranging from 1 million won to several hundred million won. The total number of victims is 31, with the total damage amounting to 3.7 billion won, the police reported.
Police investigations revealed that most of the suspects are from African countries and divided their roles into overseas managers who contacted victims, domestic managers who handled withdrawal agents under the overseas managers' instructions, and withdrawal agents who withdrew the funds domestically. They showed particular cunning by exploiting international situations, such as impersonating U.S. soldiers or doctors deployed to the Ukraine war, to deceive victims.
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Romance Scam is a compound word combining 'romance,' meaning love, and 'scam,' meaning credit fraud. It is a financial fraud where trust is gained through SNS, and money is demanded using romance as bait. A police official stated, "Romance scams cause significant material and psychological damage as victims provide large sums of money due to long-term emotional exchanges through SNS," and advised, "Refrain from indiscriminate friend requests on SNS, and do not easily trust various certificates supporting the other party's profile pictures or occupations, as most are forged."
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