‘Pig-butchering’ romance scams bleed Korean men of $73 million this year

A romance scam group that defrauded over 100 victims of a total of 12 billion won ($8.8 million) since March last year uses deepfake technology to conduct video calls with fake identities. The ringleaders, a Korean couple, are said to be in Cambodia. Courtesy of Ulsan Metropolitan Police Agency

A 60-year-old man surnamed Park thought he had found both companionship and an investment opportunity when he met a woman on social media last October. After weeks of friendly exchanges, she sent him a link to a cryptocurrency trading platform, saying it would yield “high profits.”

Encouraged by early returns, he gradually increased his investment from 1 million won ($730) to more than 200 million won over 2 months. Then, without warning, the site shut down and the woman disappeared from the chat.

Police later told Park the case could not proceed because the suspect was overseas. It turned out that she was part of a criminal network running romance scams — fraudulent schemes in which scammers feign romantic interest to steal money.

According to data released by Rep. Han Byung-do of the Democratic Party of Korea on Thursday, reports of romance scams between January and September totaled 100 billion won ($73 million), already surpassing the 68 billion won recorded from February to December last year.

On a monthly basis, losses jumped from about 6 billion won to 11 billion won — an 82 percent increase. The number of reported cases also rose from 1,265 to 1,565.

Police began tracking romance scams in February last year, but the trend has intensified, fueled by syndicates operating in Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries. These networks often disguise themselves as foreign women to lure Korean men into bogus investment platforms.

In July, members of a corporate-style crime group were arrested for running a romance scam operation in Cambodia that defrauded victims of about 500 million won. A separate Korean-run organization based there allegedly used deepfake images of women to swindle roughly 12 billion won.

An inside view of the massive criminal compound in Takeo Province, Cambodia, Oct. 16. Korea Times photo by Heo Kyung-joo

Rise of ‘pig-butchering’ scams

Many of these cases follow what is known as the “pig-butchering” method — a term comparing victims to pigs fattened before slaughter.

Scammers build emotional intimacy with their targets, then coax them into repeatedly investing larger sums in fake cryptocurrency platforms until the account vanishes along with their money.

This approach has been adopted by syndicates linked to the “Prince Group,” a multinational conglomerate in Cambodia led by Chairman Chen Zhi, which is accused of facilitating large-scale online fraud.

Despite intensified crackdowns, police have apprehended only 47 percent of suspects this year. Law enforcement officials say tracing criminals is difficult because they move between countries and use cryptocurrency to obscure transactions.

Unlike victims of voice phishing, romance scam victims face limited legal protection. Under the Telecommunications Financial Fraud Prevention Act, banks can temporarily freeze suspicious accounts in phishing cases.

But this safeguard often does not apply to romance scams, as the law excludes cases involving “payment for goods or services.” Since scammers claim to offer investment returns — technically a form of service — victims cannot easily stop the withdrawal of funds.

Seo Jun-bae, a professor of public administration at Korean National Police University, said the current system is “discriminatory” against romance scam victims.

“Romance scams are also multi-victim frauds. Refusing to halt withdrawals simply because they involve fake investments is unreasonable,” he said.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.