Two suspects in KT mobile payment breach to be sent to prosecution
This combined photo shows two Chinese nationals being sent from a police station in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Sept. 18, to a court for a hearing on the legality of their arrest for allegedly making unauthorized mobile payments by hacking users of KT, the country's No. 2 mobile carrier. Yonhap
Two men suspected of making illegal micropayments by hacking users of mobile carrier KT will be transferred to the prosecution this week for further investigation, police said Wednesday.
The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police said it plans to send the suspects — aged 48 and 44 and both Chinese nationals of Korean ethnicity — to the Ansan branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors Office on Thursday on charges of fraud by use of a computer and other offenses.
The 48-year-old is accused of making small unauthorized mobile payments, such as purchasing gift certificates and recharging travel cards, by hacking the phones of KT users with the help of an unregistered femtocell, or a micro base station, connected to the carrier's communication network between Aug. 5 and Sept. 5.
The other suspect allegedly cashed the unauthorized payments, valued by KT at over 240 million won ($172,000), and transferred most of it to an account in China through a money exchange in South Korea.
The owner of the money exchange, identified as a Chinese national in their 60s, has also been booked on suspicion of conspiring in the scheme, police said.
The 48-year-old reportedly told police that he took part in the scheme in exchange for 5 million won from a mastermind based in China.
The mastermind has yet to be identified.
The two suspects are allegedly unacquainted and residing legally in South Korea as daytime workers. Both were apprehended Tuesday last week.
Police said they plan to file for a warrant to inspect the femtocell together with the science ministry, the Korea Internet and Security Agency and the private sector.