Man in his 20s arrested for deliberately bumping into passersby at crowded mall and extorting 22 million won in repair costs

[Financial News] A man in his 20s has been arrested for extorting more than 20 million won by deliberately bumping into passersby in crowded places such as large shopping malls and subway stations, dropping his cellphone, and then demanding repair costs. Investigators found that 38 people had been victimized over about five months, but many had not even realized they had been scammed.
Police said on the 16th that the Seoul Songpa Police Station arrested A, a man in his 20s suspected of fraud, and referred him to prosecutors on the 15th.
A is suspected of making money over about five months by going around crowded large shopping malls, deliberately bumping into passersby, dropping his own cellphone on the ground, and demanding repair costs for the damage.
Investigators found that A deceived the victims into thinking they were responsible for the damage to the cellphone. Unaware that A had deliberately approached and bumped into them, the victims thought the phone had fallen and been damaged because of them, and paid him for the repairs.
Police have confirmed 38 victims so far, with losses totaling more than 22 million won. Many of the victims reportedly found the circumstances suspicious at the time but did not report them to police because they did not realize they had been scammed.
The scheme came to light after one of the victims found the circumstances suspicious and filed a complaint with police. After receiving the complaint, police launched an investigation and identified A.
Believing there might be more victims of similar crimes, police analyzed A’s bank transfer records and other information, identifying 37 additional people who had been victimized using the same method, besides the original complainant.
After confirming multiple cases, police sought a pre-arrest warrant for A, but he failed to appear at the court hearing to review the warrant and fled.
After tracking A’s whereabouts, police arrested him at an undisclosed location in the provinces. They then detained him, conducted further investigations, and referred him to prosecutors on the 15th on suspicion of fraud.
A police official said, “We did not treat this as a low-value complaint case; we investigated it thoroughly and confirmed multiple cases involving the same scheme.” The official urged the public to be careful not to fall victim to similar schemes, saying, “This method makes it difficult to recognize the deception.”
[email protected] Lee Dong-hyeok Reporter