"Take out loans to invest"... Phone financial scam gang arrested

Created Leverage Investment Site to Deceive
Phone Financial Fraud Losses Exceeded 500 Billion Won Last Year

Ms. Lee (61, female) received a strange call from a man last month by chance. He told her there was a good stock tip and to seize the opportunity when it came. Since she was in urgent need of money recently, Ms. Lee was tempted but had no funds to invest immediately. The man then said she could take out a loan and just follow his instructions. Thus, Ms. Lee took out a 500 million KRW loan to invest, and her profits reportedly exceeded 2 billion KRW. However, she was unable to withdraw the funds. She had been scammed in what is known as a 'meoktwi' (running away with the money). Ms. Lee said, "I am now struggling to pay the interest on the loan. I was scammed out of greed and feel very wronged."

People are suffering significant losses from financial scams that even push victims to take out loans. Scammers target those with limited financial knowledge and gain their trust through sympathy and other means. The police have stepped up efforts to prevent phone-based financial scams.

On the 10th, the Guro Police Station in Seoul announced that on the 30th of last month, they booked two suspects, including a man in his 30s identified as Mr. A, on charges of fraud. They are accused of calling people with limited financial knowledge, offering stock tips, and embezzling the investment funds they received. It is known that they induced leveraged investments, promising returns several times the invested amount by encouraging victims to borrow money. They even created separate leveraged investment websites to deceive people.

If victims said they had no money, the scammers pushed them to take out loans. For victims with poor credit, they reportedly fabricated documents to obtain business-purpose loans rather than personal loans. When victims expressed suspicion, the scammers evoked sympathy by saying things like, "My father has been sick, so I have been earning money since childhood," or "I want to help many people." The estimated damage amounts to nearly 1 billion KRW.

In fact, phone-based financial scams are a recurring problem every year. According to the National Police Agency’s National Investigation Headquarters, from January to November last year, there were 20,479 cases of phone financial scams, with damages totaling 514.7 billion KRW. These scams often involve impersonating public or financial institutions or tricking victims into accessing fake websites disguised as events, leading them to take out loans and making recovery of losses difficult.

A police official stated, "We will investigate the exact circumstances of the case going forward," and added, "We will prevent financial fraud crimes through thorough investigations."

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