Double the Sentence: 20-Somethings Handed 10-Year Prison Terms for 'No-Show' Phishing Scams That Brought Self-Employed to Tears

In their first trial, individuals in their twenties who played a role in manipulating overseas phishing organization caller IDs to start with "010" were sentenced to heavy prison terms reaching double the prosecutors' sentencing recommendations.

The Seoul Southern District Court sentenced 21-year-old Park (surname) and 20-year-old Pang (surname), who were indicted on charges including violation of the Act on Prevention of Damage from Telecommunications-based Financial Fraud and the Telecommunications Business Act, to 10 years and 9 years and 6 months in prison, respectively, on October 14.

This is twice the 5-year prison term demanded by prosecutors last month.

The court also ordered forfeiture of 37.29 million won from Park and 22.24 million won from Pang.

The court pointed out, "The defendants' crimes targeted unspecified masses, inflicting irrevocable damage on the victims, and their societal harm is severe," adding that "their culpability is heavier than that of a simple cash collector as they participated in the organized fraud of a phishing syndicate."

It further explained, "We considered in sentencing that they made no effort to recover the damages and were not forgiven by the victims."

They were brought to trial on charges of operating "caller ID spoofing relay stations" by installing relay devices in motels nationwide under instructions from a phishing organization based overseas, spanning from October of last year to May of this year.

According to police investigations, they committed the crimes by staying in motels across the country at one-week intervals under instructions received from the phishing organization via social networking services such as Telegram. They primarily used a method to make calls and send text messages made by overseas syndicate members to victims appear as though they were sent from domestic mobile phones.

The syndicate members installed remote control apps on mobile phones managed by the two individuals, manipulating the numbers to display as "010" telephone numbers when contacting victims via internet telephony or other means.

It was revealed that the syndicate members carried out "no-show scams" by using these manipulated numbers to impersonate public institutions and make reservations at restaurants or lodging businesses, then inducing victims to wire money by asking them to purchase items on behalf of a specific company before disappearing.

Investigations showed that they swindled approximately 1.1 billion won from 39 victims using these methods.

(Reported by Jung Da-eun | Video by Lee Eui-sun | Graphics by Lee Jeong-ju | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.