"Your Account Is Tied": Call Center Stole 600 Million Won, Relocated to Central Asia to Evade Crackdowns in Cambodia

[Anchor]

Voice phishing and other scam organizations operating mainly in Southeast Asia have expanded their operational range to Central Asia. To evade crackdowns, a group of 19 South Koreans who operated bases in Cambodia and Vietnam, and recently in Kazakhstan, has been apprehended.

Reporting by Reporter Lee Se-hyeon.

[Reporter]

Police check the mobile phones of men standing with their hands behind their backs.

[That's mine.]

Men standing facing the wall get into vehicles one after another.

They are members of an organization that committed scam crimes such as voice phishing and text financial fraud in Kazakhstan.

Investigations showed that after setting up a call center in Almaty, Kazakhstan, they impersonated government agencies such as the Financial Supervisory Service, the prosecution, and the court, swindling 600 million won from 16 victims.

They used methods such as approaching victims under the pretext of receiving registered mail from the Supreme Court, tricking them into believing their accounts were linked to crimes, and forcing them to transfer money themselves.

The Special Task Force on Transnational Crimes arrested 14 members in Almaty on June 23 and repatriated all of them, while also apprehending five members who were in South Korea.

All 19 members are South Korean.

Investigations revealed that they originally operated with a base in Cambodia, but as local crackdowns intensified, they passed through Vietnam and moved their base to Kazakhstan starting in April of this year to commit crimes.

[Kim Byung-joo, Head of the International Cooperation Division 1 at the Korean National Police Agency: Even if criminal organizations hide in remote and unfamiliar regions such as the other side of the globe, we will pursue them to the end, bring them to justice, and protect the safety of the public.]

The police have already placed 14 of the 19 suspects under arrest and plan to principle the investigation with the detention of the remaining five as well.

In addition, they are pursuing some members who fled to other countries like Southeast Asia, including two individuals with Chinese nationality in China who served as the general mastermind and managers.

(Video Editing: So Ji-hye, Design: Park Taeyoung, Footage provided by: Korean National Police Agency)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.