▲ Fire Extinguisher
With one in three self-employed individuals in South Korea aged 60 or older, authorities are urging caution as a new wave of scams involving fake official documents from impersonated public institutions continues to emerge.
On June 28, reports of scams involving individuals impersonating district offices or fire departments to pressure business owners into purchasing firefighting equipment have been flooding into "It Hurts Because I'm a Boss," a Naver cafe community for the self-employed with approximately 1.9 million members.
A common tactic involves scammers posing as officials from district offices or fire departments. They use deceptive tactics, such as claiming that "fire safety laws have been revised" or that "government subsidies are available," to pressure owners into believing they must purchase lithium-ion fire extinguishers and fire blankets.
In particular, they often rush the purchase by claiming that "a district office inspection is scheduled for next week, so you must be prepared beforehand."
It is reported that they even send forged official documents and price quotes under the names of district offices or fire agencies to avoid suspicion.
The National Fire Agency is aware of these criminal activities and is considering countermeasures.
According to National Fire Agency statistics, there were 1,309 cases of crimes involving the impersonation of fire agencies nationwide in the one-year period ending in April.
Of these, 161 businesses suffered actual financial losses, with the cumulative damage amounting to approximately 2.95 billion won.
However, these statistics do not include cases where scammers impersonated local governments, such as district offices, or other public institutions.
If cases of attempted fraud are included, the total scale of the damage is estimated to be much larger.
Recently, new types of scams exploiting artificial intelligence (AI) have also been on the rise.
A prime example is the malicious demand for refunds by using AI to manipulate photos of delivered food, claiming that "there was hair in the food," "the chicken was undercooked," or "a cockroach was found."
The problem is that about one-third of self-employed individuals in Korea are in their 60s or older, a demographic that is often less familiar with digital environments.
According to a report by the Institute for Future Initiative titled "Structural Transformation of the Self-Employed Market and Policy Tasks," 32.9% of individual business owners were 60 or older in 2024, an increase of 14.5 percentage points from 2011 (18.4%).
By sector, the proportion of those aged 60 or older in the wholesale industry reached 28.6% in 2025, a significant increase from 2017 (15.6%), and the food service industry also saw an increase of about 10 percentage points from 17.1% to 27.5% during the same period.
This is interpreted as a result of an increasing number of elderly people opening restaurants, which have relatively low barriers to entry after retirement.
In response, small business associations have pointed out that education and prevention activities regarding these types of scams must be significantly strengthened.
Cha Nam-soo, head of the Policy Development Division at the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise, emphasized, "Relevant agencies, such as the Small Enterprise and Market Service, must continuously educate self-employed individuals on new types of scams," adding, "Elderly business owners who are not familiar with the digital environment should also be able to receive help through local small business associations or merchant associations."
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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