Three arrested for 'naked chat' swindle

Three Korean-Chinese men from a China-based phishing group have been arrested for allegedly swindling 500 million won ($452,000) from dozens of Korean men and threatening to spread “naked-chatting” videos, police said Monday. / Yonhap

By Hong Dam-young

Three Korean-Chinese men who ran a China-based phishing group have been arrested for swindling 500 million won ($452,000) from dozens of Korean men, police said on Monday.

According to Bucheon Wonmi Police Station, the men tricked 96 Korean men into “naked-video chatting” between April 9 and July 11, in which both sides were naked while chatting.

The alleged swindlers saved the videos, and infected the men’s phones with a virus, telling them to install a program that displays videos in high-definition.

After hacking into the men’s address books, the group asked for money not to spread the videos to their families or friends.

Eight Korean men wired the gang money, ranging from 500,000 ($452) to 19.5 million won ($17,634). The accused also took money ranging from 100,000 won to 86 million won from 88 Korean men for arranging women to have sex with them. But there were no women.

The accused also swindled tens of millions won from six Koreans through false job offers, impersonating investigation authorities, and voice phishing, according to police.

One of the accused, 30, is charged with having wired 570 million won ($515,463) to the China-based phishing group from a fake account, to which swindled people sent their money.

He received 150,000 won ($135) to 200,000 won ($181) a day for doing this, police said.

“The only way to avoid damage from phishing is to not open up a message sent from someone you don’t know, because even an anonymous chat room can be exploited for fraud,” a police official said.