Gangwon Provincial Police Agency coordinates probe into no-show scams... prevents 16.4 billion won in losses and arrests 55

[Financial News, Chuncheon = Kim Gi-seop] The Gangwon Provincial Police Agency joined forces with the Ministry of National Defense and the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to combat no-show scams involving suspects posing as military officers, preventing about 16.4 billion won in losses and arresting 55 people involved in the operation in South Korea and overseas, including members of a China-based ring.
According to the Gangwon Provincial Police Agency on the 2nd, the Ministry of National Defense’s Defense Help Call handled 2,633 calls reporting the impersonation of military personnel from May last year through October this year, and prevented losses in 2,055 of those cases. The amount saved came to about 16.4 billion won. Police immediately blocked 119 phone numbers reported to the Defense Help Call as being used in crimes, launched an investigation and arrested 24 people involved in South Korea.
Information from the NIS helped police arrest the overseas ring. Police identified the location of its operation base in China and arrested nine people there, including the overseas ringleader. After tracking down another member who had entered South Korea, they arrested and detained that person. From December last year through October this year, police arrested 55 people in all, including eight managers and seven call-center agents, as well as the domestic ringleader responsible for supplying SIM cards and people who lent out their identities. Authorities have issued a Red Notice from the International Criminal Police Organization for one manager-level member still overseas and are pursuing them.
No-show scams involve posing as military officers or local government officials to order group meals for military events or supplies for local government events from self-employed people and small-business owners, then cutting off contact or persuading them to make proxy transfers to steal their money. The ring arrested in this case is suspected of posing as public-sector procurement officials and supplier employees around May this year and inducing victims to pay for proxy purchases, defrauding four people, including A (55), of 160 million won. The alleged offenses are joining and participating in a criminal organization and fraud.
The three agencies’ collaboration began in May last year with a system for immediately forwarding reports of military impersonation received through the police reporting line to the Defense Help Call. From January this year, it was expanded into an integrated system that receives crime-related phone numbers from the Defense Help Call in real time, asks telecommunications companies to block them and immediately launches investigations. Police also worked with the Ministry of National Defense Investigation Headquarters to produce and distribute nationwide a crime-prevention video featuring actors from the drama “New Recruit 4.”
Gangwon Provincial Police Agency Commissioner Kwak Byungwoo said, “The police’s investigative capabilities, the military’s prevention policies and the NIS’s overseas intelligence network worked in concert, leading not only to preventing losses but also to the arrest of the ring.” He added, “As the methods used by scam rings based overseas become increasingly sophisticated, we will work with overseas law enforcement agencies to step up local arrests, evidence gathering and repatriation.”

[email protected] Kim Gi-seop Reporter