The Daejeon Yuseong Police Station announced on August 12 that it has apprehended eight members of an investment-leading scam ring on charges of impersonating stock experts and pocketing approximately 1.5 billion won in cash and gold bars under the guise of investment funds. Six of the suspects have been placed under arrest.

The suspects, including an individual identified as A, are accused of defrauding five victims of 1.541 billion won worth of cash and gold bars. They did this by luring them via social media posts related to stock investment in June, claiming that "participating in an investment project can yield up to 100% returns."

The group instructed the victims to prepare cash and gold bars, telling them that "due to security issues, investments must be collected directly in cash and gold bars."

Subsequently, members acting as collection agents wore counterfeit foreign securities firm employee IDs to meet the victims and collect the cash and gold bars.

They also handed fake investment certificates to the victims.

Furthermore, the suspects fabricated deposit details and return rates by creating a fake application, deceiving the victims into believing that investments were being processed normally.

Police pursued and apprehended a ring member who attempted to flee after receiving gold bars from the collection agents, successfully recovering 258 million won of the defrauded funds.

A police official advised, "If someone guarantees high returns on investments such as stocks, sends links to induce app installation, or encourages investment through profit certifications in group chat rooms, it is highly likely to be a scam, so extreme caution is required."

(Photo: Yonhap News)