"Thought They Wouldn't Get Caught..." Gang Defrauding 1,130 People Through Secondhand Transactions While Living in the Philippines

Extorting 360 Million Won Over 4 Years... Repeated Opening of Non-Face-to-Face Accounts

Koreans who committed online secondhand transaction fraud in South Korea against about 1,100 victims while staying in the Philippines for four years have been repatriated to South Korea.

The Cyber Crime Investigation Unit of the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency announced on the 26th that they have arrested and sent two suspects, A (in his 30s) and B (in his 20s), on habitual fraud charges.

A man in his 30s residing in the Philippines, who committed fraud by selling goods on a domestic second-hand trading site, was repatriated to Korea and arrested by the police.
[Photo by Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency]

The two, who were acquaintances, are accused of posting ads on popular domestic secondhand trading websites from April 2019 to last April, offering various household goods at low prices, then taking advance payments and cutting off contact, thereby swindling about 1130 people out of approximately 360 million won.

To conceal their crimes, they repeatedly created new accounts and IDs whenever fraud reports were filed against their existing IDs and bank accounts, continuing their crimes for four years.

It is reported that they conspired to commit the crimes in April 2019, then left for the Philippines, where they married locals and even had children. The police explained that they also showed meticulousness by involving their families to exchange criminal proceeds in order to evade investigation agencies' tracking.

Messages exchanged between the fraud gang and the victim [Photo by Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency]

The police analyzed over 1,000 similar damage reports where victims transferred payment to specific accounts but did not receive goods, identifying the two suspects. They then cooperated with Interpol, the Philippine police, and others to arrest them locally.

Suspect A, who was caught by local police, refused repatriation to South Korea, threatened to cause disturbances in the detention center, and reportedly shouted loudly and engaged in a physical struggle for about 20 minutes before boarding the plane.

A police official stated, "Internet product fraud is a representative crime that produces many victims in a short period and causes social distrust, harming the common economy," and urged, "To prevent damage, please check the seller’s phone number and bank account fraud history through the Police Agency’s 'Internet Fraud Suspicious Phone/Account Number Inquiry' or services like 'The Cheat' and 'No Scam' before making transactions."

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