Man Sentenced to Prison for Posing as Woman on Chat App to Extort 37 Million Won

The court sentenced a man in his 30s to prison for impersonating a woman and extorting over 37 million won from men he met through a chat application.

According to the legal community on the 6th, Judge Jeon Beom-sik of the Seoul Southern District Court Criminal Division 8 sentenced A (30) to 1 year and 6 months in prison on the 3rd for charges of fraud and extortion.

A met a man in his 20s, B, on a chat app around April 2020 and maintained a cyber romantic relationship. A lied, saying, "I have no money for a meal; if you lend me 30,000 won, I will pay you back on payday," and received a money transfer. By July of the same year, A had extorted a total of 14,397,000 won from B over 40 occasions.

Additionally, around October 2020, A posted a message on a chat app implying a transactional meeting and became close with a man, C, who contacted A after seeing the post. A deceived C by saying, "If you send money for meal expenses, transportation, and grandmother's hospital bills, I will come down to where B lives," and received 3,425,000 won from B.

Including this, from 2019 until last year, A pretended to be a woman to men he met through internet chat sites and apps, deceiving about ten male victims with phrases like "I have no living expenses and urgently need money; if you lend me money, I will pay you back on payday," and "If you give me money, I will meet you," thereby embezzling a total of 37.34 million won.

The court stated the sentencing rationale: "Considering that A embezzled money from multiple victims over a considerable period, the total amount, the method of the crime, and that a significant portion of the damage has not been recovered, a corresponding punishment is necessary." However, the fact that the defendant admitted to all the crimes and reached settlements with six victims was taken into account as a mitigating factor.

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