NongHyup Employee's Intuition... Prevents 35 Million Won 'Romance Scam' Loss

Jeju City Nonghyup Ara Branch, Manager Bo Gojungeun
"Show me the conversation content," persuading

A woman in her 60s who nearly lost tens of millions of won to a ‘romance scam’ was saved from damage by the quick thinking of a NongHyup Bank employee.

According to a summary from the Jeju City NongHyup Ara Branch on the 2nd, on the afternoon of the 14th of last month, Ms. A (68, female) visited the branch and requested Assistant Manager Go Jeong-eun (45) to transfer 35 million won. She said it was to pay for a delivery fee to receive goods from an acquaintance overseas.

Thank you letter sent by Mr. Cho.
[Photo by Jeju City Nonghyup Ara Branch]

Suspicious of sending tens of millions of won as a delivery fee, Assistant Manager Go cited examples of phone financial fraud (voice phishing) cases. He then asked Ms. A repeatedly about the exact purpose of the funds, suspecting criminal damage.

Eventually, he realized that Ms. A was a victim of a romance scam. A romance scam is a new type of crime combining ‘romance,’ meaning love, and ‘scam,’ meaning fraud, where the perpetrator emotionally connects with the victim through SNS or other means and then steals money.

The acquaintance who demanded the delivery fee had approached Ms. A via SNS messages since February this year, building a relationship and had already extorted 15 million won in two installments.

Gojung is the manager.
[Photo by Jeju City Nonghyup Ara Branch]

At that time, Ms. A did not believe Assistant Manager Go’s words. He guided her to the nearby police precinct. When the police officers also said it was a typical scam, Ms. A finally realized she was a victim of a crime.

Assistant Manager Go Jeong-eun explained the situation, saying, "The customer was very upset after realizing the romance scam fraud late. I comforted her by saying it was fortunate to have prevented a larger financial loss, fearing she might be distressed."

Ms. A sent a postcard to the Jeju City NongHyup Ara Branch, saying, “Thanks to Assistant Manager Go Jeong-eun’s kind explanation, I was able to prevent a large financial loss. He also helped me report it to the police. I am very grateful.”

[Photo by Yonhap News]

Meanwhile, the number of romance scam reports received by the National Intelligence Service 111 Center last year was 126 cases, about 3.4 times more than the 37 cases in 2020. The amount of damage surged about 17 times compared to 2020 (320 million won), reaching 5.512 billion won last year.

Recently, romance scam methods have also evolved. Some scammers recommend virtual currency investments or deceive victims through video calls using deepfakes that synthesize specific individuals. In response, the police have set the eradication of ‘new types of livelihood-infringing fraud crimes’ such as romance scams as a major policy plan for this year and have strengthened intelligence activities.

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