Not only buyers, but sellers are getting hit too... Fraud is evolving every day

[Financial News] #. A man surnamed Jeon, who lives in Daejeon, tried to sell a bookshelf through a used-goods app. The buyer asked him to complete the payment on an external site, citing a discount. The site then demanded a deposit of 100,000 won for identity verification and said it would return that amount along with the 150,000 won sale price. After Jeon transferred the 100,000 won, the site kept asking for more money, claiming the phone number or bank account number was incorrect. Jeon later realized it was a scam, but by then he had already transferred a total of more than 2 million won.As used-goods trading has become more active and user numbers have surged, a new type of crime that targets not only buyers but also sellers is spreading rapidly. Suspects lure victims into making deposits by using external sites and claiming the money is needed for identity verification, while inflating the amount beyond the value of the item. Because this is a new form of crime that combines used-goods platform scams with phishing, extra caution is being urged. To stop these evolving scams, there are growing calls for more frequent damage compensation orders for victims and tougher penalties.
According to the National Police Agency and the legal community on the 30th, crimes that combine used-goods scams with phishing have been steadily increasing.
This can also be seen in victim reports posted on used-goods platforms. These schemes typically involve asking users to use an external platform or site instead of direct bank transfers, citing a discount; demanding an advance transfer for identity verification; and requesting additional payments for reasons such as an account number or name mismatch. The method has evolved beyond the old pattern of taking the money and then disappearing.
Such cases are being reported frequently to frontline investigators at the National Police Agency. It is not that this specific type of fraud has risen sharply on its own, but when an existing scam method becomes known or a popular item is involved, the number of cases surges alongside it.
A police officer at a local station said, "The arrest rate for recent used-goods scams has remained at a similar level, but both the number of offenders and the number of cases are increasing."
The police say they are detecting more of these changing scams, but actual arrests remain difficult. That is because most suspects use burner phones and fake deposit bank passbooks. In addition, because the crimes occur simultaneously across the country, cases must be consolidated from different regions. Most of the crimes are also carried out remotely from overseas, so investigators must seek cooperation from foreign law enforcement agencies, which further delays the process.
However, despite the rise in fraud and the growing variety of methods, meaningful punishment and compensation remain difficult in practice. According to the Judicial Yearbook, the approval rate for compensation orders in criminal cases has continued to decline from 2020 through last year. The number of cases nearly doubled, from about 26,000 to about 51,000, but the approval rate fell by nearly half, from 49.8% to 28.1%, over the same period. Since the figures also include state compensation, the actual rate is likely even lower. A lawyer handling criminal cases said, "The basic purpose is to provide a one-stop resolution for property crime disputes by keeping criminal and civil compensation orders separate, but because the approval rate is so low in practice, victims have no choice but to file separate civil lawsuits."
The lawyer also pointed to problems in the investigative system. Most used-goods scam losses are small, and because the crimes happen simultaneously across the country, frontline investigators say their attention to these cases tends to be low.
To address this, experts stressed that both the system and the level of punishment must be strengthened. Professor Lee Hongjoo of the Department of Consumer Economics, Sookmyung Women's University, referred to Escrow, a system in which a platform holds the buyer's payment, and said, "Information sharing among not only platforms but also financial companies, telecom firms, and investigative agencies must be faster. Because these are crimes that keep creating new methods, platform systems must also continuously improve their preventive measures." Another lawyer at the front line said, "Because the penalties are light and compensation orders are rarely granted, offenders keep committing the crimes with the attitude that they only need to be punished once." He added, "Sentences need to be increased to send a clear warning."
[email protected] Jung Kyung-soo Reporter