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Members of a “corporate-style” voice phishing organization based in Cambodia, who were tried for extorting hundreds of millions of won from multiple victims, were all sentenced to prison in the first trial.
The Seoul Eastern District Court sentenced voice phishing manager-level organizer Seo, 32, who was detained and indicted on charges including joining a criminal organization, to six years in prison. Other members of the organization indicted alongside Seo were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to four years. The court also ordered the confiscation of approximately 100 million won ($71,000) from them.
The court stated, “Telecommunication financial fraud crimes cause irreparable damage to unspecified and numerous victims, and the social harm they cause is also serious.” It continued, “Since they establish bases abroad and operate systematically, their crimes are organized and divided by roles, and their methods of committing these crimes are highly sophisticated, making detection difficult, which makes the damage even more severe.”
Seo and the others are accused of committing various fraud crimes at a voice phishing call center based in Cambodia. They were investigated for embezzling about 527 million won from victims through fraud schemes organized by a foreign mastermind known by the alias “Ma Dong-seok” in a criminal group called the Hanya Call Center. The prosecution found that the organization operated teams specializing in different fraud schemes, such as romance scams, “body cam” phishing and impersonation of institutions.
Earlier, the court sentenced other members — surnamed Shin and Na — to four years and one year and six months in prison, respectively, in August. Early this month, another member surnamed Kim was sentenced to three years and six months in prison and fined 974,400 won.
On this day, the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors Office's Voice Phishing Crime Joint Investigation Team announced that it had additionally arrested and indicted eight Cambodian call center members and three people who provided financial accounts to the organization. These individuals are suspected of conducting romance scams.
They are believed to have embezzled between 46 million and 500 million won from victims. In the case of the account providers, they are accused of violating the Electronic Financial Transactions Act by personally traveling to Cambodia and handing over the account information and virtual asset exchange accounts to the members. “Investigations are ongoing against the foreign mastermind residing overseas, the Korean deputy head and other members,” a prosecution official explained.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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