By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
The police on Sunday caught several members of the largest domestic voice phishing gang, apparently with Chinese connections, which has reportedly caused more than 350 million won in damage. Gwangju Seobu Police sought an arrest warrant for three men including a Chinese illegal immigrant on suspicion of fraud.
The three men reportedly called a woman, Koh, claiming to be Financial Supervisory Service staff last August. They then told Koh her private information on her current bank account had leaked and she should move her 39 million won to another bank account they designated.
In this way, the swindlers managed to make 350 million won from 25 people.
They usually went under the guise of bank, credit card company or financial government staff to lure the victims to move their money to a bank account under another person's name.
A group of Chinese gangsters are allegedly involved in the fraud and apparently made telephone calls from China to prevent police tracking. Also, to avoid camera surveillance, the gangsters sent some Chinese, or Korean-Chinese people to Korea for a week only, using a visitor's visa to collect the money. They were paid 200,000-300,000 won a day.
The police are investigating whether the gangsters have committed more crimes.
bjs@koreatimes.co.kr
