Gyeongnam Police Agency Arrests 133 for Malicious Cybercrimes, Detains 5

Sexual Exploitation, Investment Fraud, Ticket Sales, etc.

311 Cases Reported in 20 Days Since Intensive Crackdown Implemented

The Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency, which declared a war against the four major malicious cybercrimes and launched a focused crackdown from the 1st of this month until October 31, announced on the 23rd that it has uncovered 311 cases since the implementation.

According to the provincial police agency, the four major malicious cybercrimes are ▲cyber fraud ▲cyber financial crimes ▲cyber sexual violence ▲cyber gambling.

The Cyber Investigation Division of the provincial police agency and the cyber investigation units of 23 police stations in the province have uncovered 311 cases and arrested 133 suspects during the 20 days since the crackdown began, of which 5 were detained.

Among them, the Cyber Investigation Team of Jinhae Police Station arrested a 29-year-old man who had groomed victims via social networking services (SNS) since 2015 and posted and distributed nude photos of the victims on an anonymous blog. He was detained and sent to prosecution on March 4 of this year.

According to the investigation team, the man engaged in conversations with the victims for the purpose of sexual exploitation and continued producing sexually exploitative materials. When the victim avoided meeting him, around June 2022, he distributed the nude photos of the victim that he had stored.

Grooming refers to a criminal act where the perpetrator gains the victim’s favor or builds a close relationship to psychologically dominate them, then attempts meetings or sexual acts.

The man was found to have committed crimes such as filming the bodies of seven children and adolescents using cameras and engaging in sexually exploitative conversations over seven years since 2015.

Concert ticket sales post and messenger conversation content. [Provided by Gyeongnam Police Agency]

The Cyber Investigation Team of Yangsan Police Station arrested two suspects who, around June 2022, created a fake investment caf? on the internet and promoted it by claiming “profits are generated through margin trading,” thereby swindling approximately 79 million KRW from victims over eight occasions under the pretense of investment funds. One suspect was detained and the other was sent to prosecution without detention on the 8th.

The Cyber Investigation Team of Gimhae Jungbu Police Station arrested a 22-year-old man who, around November 2022, deceived 54 people who wanted to purchase items such as singer concert tickets and airline points on online secondhand trading platforms and SNS, receiving about 17 million KRW into his account. He was detained and sent to prosecution on the 20th.

A representative of the provincial police agency said, “We will focus investigative personnel and resources centered on the Cyber Investigation Division of the provincial police agency during this special crackdown to ensure that residents can tangibly feel cyber safety.”

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