Police have rounded up dozens of members of a voice phishing ring that drove a man in his 20s preparing for a job to his death in 2020 while impersonating a prosecutor named Kim Min-su.

The Busan Metropolitan Police Agency's metropolitan investigation unit announced that it has arrested 67 individuals, including a Chinese national in his 30s surnamed A who served as the mastermind, on charges including violations of the Act on Prevention of Damage from Telecommunications-based Financial Fraud, and has detained 17 of them.

Police explained that A was the head of the organization that deceived a job seeker in his 20s on January 20, 2020, by impersonating "Prosecutor Kim Min-su of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office" and telling him, "You are implicated in a massive financial fraud and need to withdraw money from your bank account," thereby swindling 4.2 million won.

The job seeker took his own life a few days later.

A police official stated, "There was no particular reason for choosing the alias Kim Min-su," adding, "While A partially admitted to participating in the crime, he denied being the mastermind and did not show much remorse."

A and his accomplices are accused of setting up call center offices overseas, including in China, from August 2015 to July 2021 and pocketing 5 billion won by impersonating prosecutors or Financial Supervisory Service employees.

The gang deceived victims by claiming that burner accounts under the victims' names had been opened and used for crimes so they needed to move cash, or by offering low-interest refinancing loans.

During this process, they also presented forged government employee IDs and fake official documents detailing case outlines.

Police have requested Interpol red notices and forced repatriation for 33 accomplices who are fleeing abroad.

(Photo provided by Busan Metropolitan Police Agency, Yonhap News)