Suspicious Tent in the Reed Forest on the Uninhabited Island... Police Raid the Scene on Jet Skis, Arrest Voice Phishing Crime Organization

A gang that deceived over 300 people by changing overseas caller numbers to domestic numbers and embezzled approximately 15 billion won has been arrested by the police.

The Violent Crime Investigation Unit of the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency announced on the 28th that they have apprehended three members of a Chinese phone financial fraud organization and 20 relay device managers on charges of organizing a criminal group, fraud, and violating the Act on the Regulation and Punishment of Criminal Proceeds Concealment.

The police have detained three individuals, including a call center team leader who deceived victims by making calls, and 13 relay device managers, while seven accomplices were booked without detention.

A relay station is hidden in the reed field on the uninhabited island. [Image source=Busan Police Agency]

According to the police, the gang operated phone financial fraud (voice phishing) organizations in six locations including Dalian, China, from 2018 until last September, impersonating prosecutors or financial institutions to embezzle approximately 15 billion won from 328 victims.

To avoid suspicion of phone financial fraud, they installed relay devices that convert internet phone numbers starting with 070 into 010 mobile phone numbers in motels, one-room apartments, underground locations, and even on an uninhabited island at the Nakdong River estuary in Busan, evading police tracking.

The relay device installed inside a tent in the reed forest on the uninhabited island was connected to solar panels for power supply and was remotely managed. Additionally, local fishermen near the uninhabited island who received money from the gang helped manage the relay devices.

The police secretly entered the uninhabited island on a jet ski and discovered the relay devices hidden in the reed forest.

Believer's location.

The gang also posted high-paying part-time job advertisements online, recruiting people by telling them that they only needed to carry boxes in vehicles or motorcycles, paying about 3 million won per month to operate mobile number-changing relay devices.

During the seizure and search of 21 relay stations, the police confiscated 35 relay devices, 180 burner phones, and 1,800 burner SIM cards, estimating that the criminal organization operated hundreds of relay devices.

Kim Sang-dong, head of the Violent Crime Investigation Division at the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency, urged caution, stating, “They lure people into participating in the crime by offering large sums of money to install relay devices in one-room apartments or motels or to carry them in vehicles under the pretense of high-paying part-time jobs, so special attention is required.”

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