'Mother and son found dead after being fleeced of 50 million won'... Voice-phishing scam behind tragedy carried out by Korean gang based in Kazakhstan

[Financial News] The people behind the deaths of a mother and son in Eumseong County, North Chungcheong Province, who died after becoming despondent over voice-phishing losses totaling 50 million won, have been identified as a Korean voice-phishing ring that had been operating out of Kazakhstan.
Police said on the 4th that a woman in her 50s, identified as A, and her younger son, B, in his 20s, were found dead in an apartment in Eumseong County, North Chungcheong Province, on June 20. A note was found at the scene saying, in effect, that financial hardship caused by voice-phishing losses and other factors had become difficult to bear.
The investigation found that before his death, B had reported a voice-phishing loss worth 50 million won to the Seoul Geumcheon Police Station on June 6. The gang, which had set up a call center in Almaty, Kazakhstan, approached B while impersonating prosecutors. They told him, “Your identity has been implicated in crimes such as the use of a mule bank account, so an investigation is necessary,” then lured him to a nearby lodging establishment and isolated him to prevent him from contacting the outside world—a so-called “self-confinement” scam. They then claimed his assets needed to be checked, had him purchase cryptocurrency worth tens of millions of won, and instructed him to transfer it to a digital wallet belonging to an unidentified person abroad whom they had designated, thereby stealing the funds.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency transferred the case to the dedicated voice-phishing unit of the Metropolitan Criminal Investigation Unit, which had been conducting specialized tracing of cryptocurrency movements and related routes. During the investigation, police found that the method used against B perfectly matched that of a group under investigation by the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency, and transferred the entire case to the agency on the 19th of last month.
The gang had initially operated out of Cambodia, but moved its base to Kazakhstan via Vietnam in April this year after local crackdowns intensified, the investigation found. The organization was completely dismantled after the government-wide joint Special Task Force on Transnational Crimes (TF), working with Kazakh authorities, conducted a joint operation there on July 23.
The Busan Metropolitan Police Agency said last August that it had substantiated allegations that the group swindled about 5.8 billion won from around 100 people between March and June this year, and had referred a total of 19 people to prosecutors in custody: 14 arrested locally and five who had been staying in South Korea. Police continue to track the remaining members of the group who have yet to be arrested.


[email protected] Park Ji-hyun Reporter