One of the suspects, who pretended to be a sailor, claimed to be stuck in the middle of the ocean and needed money quickly. - Photo: Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency
SEOUL: An international fraud ring is accused of perpetrating a romantic scam against 14 victims by assuming the fake identities of US soldiers, UN officials and foreign students, Seoul police said on Tuesday (Nov 19).
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said it has forwarded the case involving the criminal organisation, which has a 44-year-old Russian leader, to the prosecution for fraud charges. The Russian leader and eight others have been placed under detention.
They are believed to have swindled a total of 1.4 billion won (US$968,954) across 68 scams from 14 victims.
The suspects allegedly befriended the victims via fake profiles on various social media pages, assuming male identities to talk to female victims and female identities to talk to male victims.
After earning the victims’ trust and forming romantic relationships, the suspects pretended to be in a troubled situation and requested that the victims wire money under several pretences.
These included a claim of bank accounts being frozen and asking for transfer fees to “receive gold bars they are getting from the UN and Ukraine as compensation”.
One of the suspects, who pretended to be a sailor, claimed to be stuck in the middle of the ocean and needed money quickly.
The victim said she borrowed money from her sister to transfer money to the suspect.
In another case, a member of the criminal ring asked a 40-year-old victim to wire a fee needed for packages to pass through Customs. The victim ended up wiring 165 million won in total.
The criminal ring reportedly comprised individuals from countries including Nigeria and Angola, and a naturalised South Korean originally from the Philippines. - The Korea Herald/ANN
