Police Intensify Crackdown on Illegal Activities Involving High Oil Price Relief Fund

Crackdown on Illegal Currency Exchange Schemes and Direct Transaction Fraud, Including "Card Kiting"

The police are intensifying their crackdown on illegal activities exploiting the high oil price relief fund.

The National Office of Investigation of the Korean National Police Agency announced on April 26 that, starting from April 27, it will begin cracking down on illegal acts related to the application and payment of the high oil price relief fund. The police plan to launch immediate investigations into real-time crimes, centering on the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit and direct investigation departments at each provincial police agency. They also intend to proactively respond by applying for pre-indictment confiscation and preservation of criminal proceeds.

A gasoline and diesel price notice is displayed at a gas station in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Photo by Dongjoo Yoon

The main targets of the special crackdown on illegal activities involving the high oil price relief fund include: ▲Direct transaction fraud disguised as discount sales ▲Fictitious sales or service provision ▲Transactions made under another merchant's name ▲Claiming payment after processing a transaction without actual goods or services ▲Transferring access devices such as credit or debit cards to another person.

Fraud disguised as discount sales is similar to online goods scams. For example, a fraudster posts an offer to sell 150,000 won worth of relief fund points for 130,000 won, receives the payment from the victim, and then fails to deliver the relief fund. Fictitious sales or service provision, known as "card kiting," involves colluding with the consumer to process a payment without actually providing any goods or services, then refunding a lesser amount in cash to the consumer. The crackdown also covers other illegal acts, such as placing another store's card terminal in a store where points or gift certificates cannot be used and processing payments with the relief fund, or exchanging the relief fund for cash without any actual goods transaction.

Park Sungjoo, Chief of the National Office of Investigation, warned, "We will relentlessly track down and strictly punish those who unfairly profit by purchasing or exchanging the high oil price relief fund, which goes against the original purpose of its distribution."

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