South Korean police arrested a suspect crypto scammers who allegedly preyed on “housewives and office workers”.
according to broadcaster sbsAuthorities arrested a 38-year-old man in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province.
He was handed over to prosecutors on charges related to fraud.
Authorities claimed that the man swindled his victims out of approximately $218,000.
He allegedly told them that they would be “guaranteed” a “high profit” if they invested in his project.
The man allegedly told his alleged victims that they would get their stakes back, along with their profits, by purchasing “crypto” from an “overseas platform.”
Authorities said the man operated the suspicious scheme from September 2019 to August 2022.
The person allegedly posed as a director of a well-known stock trading company.
But it appears that he has assumed several different identities in order to dupe more alleged victims.
He also pretended to be a successful crypto trader several times, and even posed as a qualified civil servant.
Police said the man frequented investment- and crypto-themed group chats on the KakaoTalk chat app platform to find “housewives and office workers to target”.
And authorities said the man had been investigated in the past as part of cases related to crypto fraud.
But, he said, detectives were forced to drop their investigation when he moved the money to “foreign cryptocurrency exchanges.”
Police said the man told the suspected victims that he would invest in tokens he knew were about to be listed on major exchanges.
But, he said, instead they used the alleged victims’ funds to gamble at online crypto-powered casinos.
Rise in South Korean ‘crypto scammers’?
In March, police chiefs announced Formation of a new dedicated crypto scam-fighting unit,
Crypto scams are on the rise in South Korea.
and the police are fighting Sharp rise in crypto-powered drug dealing,
President of the country last month Pledged to wage an “all-out war” on crypto-powered drug traders.