Daejeon City Warns of Spreading Real Estate Scams Impersonating Agents and Landlords

Using forged IDs, burner phones, and bank accounts under borrowed names to steal deposits and disappear

Obtaining door lock passwords and posing as licensed agents or landlords

Exterior view of Daejeon Metropolitan City Hall (Photo by Mo Seokbong)

The Daejeon Metropolitan City Government has urged citizens to exercise particular caution, as real estate fraud involving officetels (vacant units) listed on direct real estate transaction platforms such as Naver, Zigbang, and Dabang is recently spreading nationwide. In these cases, the fraudsters impersonate licensed real estate agents or landlords.

According to the city, the scam works as follows: the fraudster first obtains the door lock password of an officetel that is being advertised for rent or sale by contacting the actual real estate agency. The fraudster then posts the unit on direct transaction platforms such as Danggeun Market, falsely claiming to be a licensed real estate agent or the landlord, and lists it at a price significantly lower than comparable properties in the area to lure victims.

When a prospective tenant or buyer responds to the advertisement, the fraudster provides the door lock password of the officetel and instructs the person to "go and inspect the officetel in person because I am far away."

The impersonator then shows the prospective tenant or buyer a forged real estate registration certificate and an identification card prepared in the impersonator's name, communicates using an unregistered mobile phone under a false identity, provides a bank account number opened under a borrowed name, demands that 10% to 20% of the contract amount be transferred to that account in advance as a deposit, and disappears once the transfer is completed.

An official from Daejeon Metropolitan City said, "University students and young people who have little experience with real estate transactions and are economically vulnerable are suffering damage," adding, "To prevent fraud, it is essential to check in person, before drafting a contract and making any payment, whether the real estate agency is properly registered and whether the real estate registration certificate is authentic."

The official also urged that, even for vacant units, people should not easily disclose the door lock password of the property to others, and that if anyone detects or witnesses circumstances similar to this type of fraud in their neighborhood, they should immediately report it to the nearest police station.

For reference, the registration status of a real estate agency can be checked on Vworld, operated by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and real estate registration certificates can be viewed on the Internet Registry Office operated by the court system.

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