A Man in His 70s Lost 50 Million Won to Voice Phishing... Recovered His Assets After 3 Years

First Domestic Recovery of Overseas Leaked Funds
Returned to Victims Through Investigation Team

The Ministry of Justice has repatriated 45.1 million KRW of voice phishing damages that were leaked overseas to Korea for the first time through international judicial cooperation.

On the 18th, the Ministry of Justice announced that it repatriated 45.1 million KRW of damages belonging to voice phishing victim A (71) to Korea through criminal judicial cooperation with Taiwan. In 2019, A lost about half of his lifetime savings, 50 million KRW, after being deceived by a voice phishing crime.

Funds recovered by the Ministry of Justice from Mr. A's voice phishing victimization. [Photo by Ministry of Justice, Yonhap News]

The Taiwanese individual who took the damages left the country the day after the incident and was arrested at a Taiwanese airport. The Ministry of Justice confirmed that 45.1 million KRW in cash remaining after use was seized by Taiwanese authorities and initiated criminal judicial cooperation procedures for the return of the damages in August 2020.

The Ministry of Justice stated that after several practical consultations with the Taiwanese side, they explained the case details and the necessity of promptly recovering the criminal proceeds, and agreed on the method and procedure for transferring the damages.

On the 15th, the authorities received the damages in cash as is locally in Taiwan and repatriated them to Korea. This money will be returned to A through the "Voice Phishing Government Joint Investigation Team" currently investigating the case.

The Ministry of Justice said this is the first case of criminal judicial cooperation to repatriate voice phishing damages leaked overseas back to Korea.

According to Yonhap News, a Ministry of Justice official said, "We will continue to make efforts to thoroughly recover criminal proceeds of voice phishing leaked overseas through active international cooperation and restore damages," and added, "We will also do our best to extradite voice phishing criminals who have fled abroad and continue their crimes back to Korea."

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