Villa King Jeonse Fraud, Instant Apartment Sales, and Leading Chat Rooms... Police-Identified Crime Issues of the Year

Police University Institute of Security Policy Research Publishes 'Security Network 2024' Report, Selecting Issues Including Large-Scale Jeonse Fraud

Throughout 2023, numerous incidents and accidents occurred, among which economic incidents that sparked public anger and concern were not few. Amid soaring inflation that has made the lives of ordinary people more difficult, there are concerns that crimes targeting economically vulnerable groups will become even more rampant next year.

According to the ‘Public Safety Network 2024’ report published on the 29th by the Police University’s Institute of Public Safety Policy, this year’s public safety issues largely involved various economic incidents such as large-scale jeonse (long-term lease) fraud, defective construction of newly built apartments, and illegal stock trading chat rooms. The police selected the ‘Top 10 Public Safety Issues’ of the year through an analysis of big data from BigKinds (news big data) using keywords like ‘police, public safety, crime, incident, accident.’

A difficult life and exhausting days mark the end of the year. With high inflation, household debt, and the lowest economic growth rate on record, the worries of ordinary people have deepened. Jeonse fraud, kidnapping, murder, and violent attacks with weapons have made life unstable. As the Year of the Black Rabbit comes to a close, we hope that the shadow of the harsh recession will lessen in the New Year 2024. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

'Economic Murder' Large-Scale Jeonse Fraud

On October 12 last year, the police investigating the death of a man who had been staying long-term at an old motel in Seoul finally announced that the deceased was Mr. Kim, known as the “Villa King,” who had committed hundreds of jeonse fraud crimes in Suwon and was on the run. Subsequently, large-scale jeonse fraud crimes occurred in succession nationwide.

Due to the housing market slump, the number of ‘empty-can jeonse’?where the sale price is lower than the jeonse deposit?increased, resulting in numerous victims across the country unable to recover their deposits.

The National Police Agency defined jeonse fraud as ‘economic murder’ and conducted a special crackdown over six months, arresting 168 suspects. However, there are still about 200,000 empty-can jeonse houses nationwide where the current debt ratio exceeds the danger level (80%), and the estimated amount of deposit damage for these victims is about 26 trillion won. There is a growing need to introduce substantial victim support policies so that victims in desperate situations can receive prompt assistance.

Defective Construction of Newly Built Apartments Originating from ‘Interest Cartels’

The investigation that began with the collapse of an underground parking lot at an apartment construction site in Geomdan, Incheon, on April 29 extended to a full inspection of 91 apartment complexes ordered by LH that applied flat slab structures to their underground parking lots, including the accident site.

The National Police Agency received and began reviewing investigation requests for 74 companies involved in the construction of apartment complexes with missing rebar from LH. During this process, allegations of collusion between LH employees and subcontractors in the selection process of subcontracting companies were discovered, leading to raids on seven locations, including LH headquarters.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is preparing amendments to the enforcement regulations of the ‘Framework Act on the Construction Industry’ to strengthen evaluations on safety and quality to prevent such illegal activities at construction sites. Additionally, as many companies under investigation were found to be former officials’ firms, efforts are underway to re-amend the enforcement decree of the Public Officials Ethics Act to block preferential treatment.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Illegal Stock Trading Chat Rooms That Made ‘Stock Market Beginners’ Shed Tears

Illegal stock trading chat rooms providing investment advice through interactive group social networking services (SNS) open chat rooms on platforms like Telegram and KakaoTalk also ran rampant throughout the year.

With the stock, investment, and financial technology craze centered on the 20s and 30s age group, the methods of leading fraud rapidly evolved. These scams lure individual investors into unfair trading or front-running, causing significant financial damage to many individual investors, making the problem severe.

The number of consultations related to stock trading chat room damages increased 2.5 times over the past five years, from 7,625 cases in 2018 to 18,276 cases last year. The average investment amount per person in these chat rooms also doubled from about 4.08 million won in 2019 to 8.3 million won in April 2023.

The National Investigation Headquarters of the National Police Agency recognized illegal activities in these chat rooms as a serious issue and included crackdowns on illegal activities in stock trading chat rooms as part of the ‘Intensive Crackdown on Financial Crimes Affecting People’s Livelihoods’ conducted twice in the first and second halves of the year.

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