"Mother, you must do this" Fake Stock Exchange Scams 5060... 46 Members of Phishing Organization Arrested

[Financial News] 46 members of a phishing organization that embezzled tens of billions of won by mimicking the official stock exchange website have been caught by the police.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Metropolitan Investigation Unit announced on the 5th that they arrested 46 people, including programmer A (29), who created and sold fake stock trading sites and used them to commit fraud, on charges of violating the Telecommunications Fraud Damage Refund Act and organizing a criminal group. Among them, 20 have been sent for detention.
According to the police, A has been supplying 64 fake sites similar to stock exchanges to domestic and foreign phishing organizations since February last year. Brokers B (32) and C (24) sold 19 of these sites to 14 organizations and collected tens of millions of won in monthly management fees.
Three phishing organizations set up call centers in vacant stores in the Seoul and Gyeonggi areas for four months from last April, and induced membership in fake sites through contacts obtained from SNS and YouTube. They presented victims with fake business cards, shareholder lists, and deposit certificates, repeatedly collecting investment funds by claiming "the listing is imminent" and then disappearing after the listing date.
The organization operated sophisticated impersonation sites that reflected real-time stock price graphs, while maintaining continuous contact with victims to form close relationships by asking about their well-being. Because of this, some victims hesitated to report the damage, believing they actually owned stocks.
In this process, fake documents made with Photoshop and PowerPoint, and AI-generated stock ownership confirmation pages were used to make victims believe they were actually buying and holding stocks. The crime used only burner phones and accounts throughout, and operated in a 'pop-up' manner by moving call centers every three months to evade investigation. The elderly with financial means were their main targets. Among the 182 victims, 92% were in their 50s or older, and 71% were in their 60s or older, with one victim in their 80s suffering consecutive damages from another organization during the investigation.
Upon confirming these damage circumstances, the police launched an investigation last November, arresting 3 developers/sellers, 3 leaders, 11 managers, and 29 recruiters, and confiscated and seized 1.4 billion won in criminal proceeds before indictment.
Nam Cheol-an, team leader of the National Police Agency's Criminal Mobile Unit, said, "This case is an example where both the creators/sellers of fake sites and the phishing organizations using them were all arrested," and urged, "Investing through unofficial channels without official approval is more likely to lead to crime damage than high returns, so please be particularly cautious."

425_sama@fnnews.com Choi Seung-han Reporter