Romance Scam Targeting Hearing-Impaired... 100 Million Won Saved Thanks to Post Office Employee's Report
"Customer Trying to Withdraw 100 Million Won Seems Suspicious"
Reported by Ilsanseo-gu Post Office Employee
A man in his 40s with a hearing impairment narrowly avoided losing 100 million won after being deceived by a 'romance scam,' thanks to a report from a post office employee. Romance scams are a type of fraud that recently have been carried out through social networking services (SNS), where perpetrators approach numerous unspecified individuals, build a sense of trust, and then demand money. The methods have become more sophisticated, causing the scale of damage to increase daily, but current laws make it difficult to protect victims.
At noon on the 21st, the Ilsan Western Police Station in Gyeonggi received a report from a post office employee in Ilsanseo-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi Province, stating, "A customer is trying to withdraw 100 million won from their deposit, but something seems suspicious." Police who responded met the man in his 40s who was about to transfer the money and checked his mobile phone.
The man, who has a hearing impairment, had been communicating with a person presumed to be a woman named A through a chat application since the 15th. A was found to have sent revealing photos and messages saying "I love you" to induce the man to transfer money.
The man told the police that he was in a romantic relationship with this person, but the police judged it to be a romance scam based on clues such as the awkward language in the chat that seemed to be translated by a translator and the guidance to install a loan-related application. Thanks to the post office employee who reported the case, the man’s loss was prevented.
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The National Police Agency recorded 628 cases of romance scam damage and approximately 45.4 billion won in losses over five months from February to June last year. This amount is more than three times the 13.8 billion won in losses reported to the National Intelligence Service (NIS) over five years from 2019 to 2023. In 2023, the number of romance scam reports received by the NIS 111 Center was 126, nearly four times the 38 cases in 2019, and the damage amount increased more than sixfold from 830 million won to 5.512 billion won during the same period.
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