Arrest of Chinese Voice Phishing Gang That Embezzled 700 Million Won by Impersonating Investigative Agencies

Money Laundering Through High-End Luxury Watch Purchases

A Chinese voice phishing gang that defrauded over 700 million won by impersonating domestic investigative agencies was arrested by the police.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 1st, the Seoul Gwanak Police Station announced that they arrested 15 people, including cash collectors and managers of the voice phishing operation, on fraud charges, and detained four of them.

According to the police, manager A and remittance handler B are accused of recruiting part-time workers for luxury watch purchasing services under the condition of paying 200,000 won per day, then using the applicants' name accounts to embezzle voice phishing victim funds.

The part-time workers, who received voice phishing victim funds transferred to their accounts, purchased expensive luxury watches and handed them over to A. Afterwards, the funds were laundered by passing through B and then delivered to the Chinese voice phishing organization or converted into cash.

The police began investigating after receiving intelligence from a man in his 30s who had worked as a luxury watch purchasing part-timer in January of this year and realized he had been involved in a voice phishing crime. Through analysis of mobile messenger conversations, CCTV tracking investigations, and communication investigations, the police sequentially arrested 15 gang members.

A police official stated, “We also achieved results in victim relief by recovering 50 million won of voice phishing victim funds on site and returning it to the victims, and we did our best to assist the victims.”

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