"Fortune-teller Couple Extorted 200 Million Won Saying 'If You Don't Do the Ritual, Your Family Will Die'"

Police Investigating Possible Additional Crimes

A shaman couple is under police investigation for deceiving people with the claim that they would die if they did not perform a gut ritual, and forcibly selling talismans to win the lottery, collecting hundreds of millions of won.

On the 13th, the Gwangju Western Police Station applied for an arrest warrant for A, a shaman in his 30s, on charges of fraud and extortion, and booked B, his partner in her 20s, without detention.

Operating a fortune-telling shop in Ssangchon-dong, Seo-gu, Gwangju since August 2022, they are accused of embezzling about 27.5 million won from three victims over nine occasions for purchasing talismans and extracting IOUs worth about 200 million won.

They approached victims through social networking services (SNS), deceiving them by saying that a gut ritual was necessary to prevent family members from dying, and demanded large sums of money. They also tricked victims into forcibly buying talismans by claiming that to win the lottery, one must purchase talismans and bury them at a location designated by themselves.

To avoid complaints from victims who did not win, they dug up lottery tickets buried in a mountain in Changwon, Gyeongnam, and deceived the victims by saying, "You did not win because you did not bury them at the place I told you."

After receiving complaints from victims last year and conducting an investigation, the police applied for an arrest warrant for A, who had a previous conviction for a similar offense and was fined, and are investigating whether there are additional crimes.

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