By Lee Kyung-min
Police have arrested 14 members of an extortion ring who swindled some 1 billion won ($931,000) from 1,000 people by recording video footage of them naked using a smartphone app.
They allegedly blackmailed people saying the footage would be made public unless they paid money, an officer said Monday,
This is the first time that police have detected an extortion ring getting money from users through a chatting app.
The Seoul Metropolitan Policy Agency (SMPA) said they took the 14 into custody for intimidation and extortion, crimes punishable by a prison term of up to 10 years or a fine of up to 10 million won.
Police said the suspects used a messenger app such as Naver LINE in search of potential victims from May 2014 until April 2015.
They sent a picture of a pretty female to random cell-phone users.
To those who showed interest, they sent another app that compromised all contact information and pictures stored in the device.
Unaware of the app or their data being compromised, the victims were solicited into taking nude photos and video footage of them “pleasuring oneself,” the SMPA said.
After securing the video footage, the suspects called the victims saying, “If you do not want to commit suicide overwhelmed by humiliation about what you just did goes public, send the money right away.”
Out of the 1,000 victims, some of them paid up to 6 million won, the SMPA said.