Phone scammers got their just deserts when the Daegu District Court sentenced two men to six years in jail for setting up call centers in China and Korea that were used to defraud unsuspecting Koreans.

The court also handed down five-year and 4 1/2-year sentences to two others for their roles in managing the criminal group in a precedent-setting case, in which people engaged in phone-based financial scams were found guilty of committing crimes as an organized crime syndicate. Thirty-one people were sentenced to 3 to 4 1/2 years in jail for participating in the crimes.

A total of 35 people were indicted on charges of swindling some 1.34 billion won ($1.136 million) from 300 victims between February 2012 and September 2013. Most of the victims were poor and vulnerable to offers of loan assistance made on the phone.


The group acted as an organized crime syndicate, with members assigned different roles. The presiding judge noted that the members shared a common goal, were not free to leave the group and their movements were restricted. The group also had its own system of punishment. All these characteristics of the group define it as a criminal syndicate according to the criminal law, the judge said.
 
The conviction of the phone scammers as members of a crime syndicate paves the way for anyone joining the group or cooperating with it to be punished as criminals. It also carries a heavier sentence of a maximum of 15 years. Previously, simple fraud applied to voice phishing crimes, carrying a relatively lighter sentence with a maximum of 10 years. Conviction as an organized crime group also allows the authorities to confiscate the criminal profits and impose fines.

According to police, the first case of voice phishing emerged in 2006. Scammers, posing as tax officials, called random Jeju residents with offers to obtain tax refunds on their behalf. Voice phishing cases have spiked in recent years, totaling some 35,859 cases last year, compared to 22,351 in 2012. It is estimated that people have been swindled out of 570 billion won through various voice phishing methods since 2006.

As phone scammers operate as cell units and are often based outside the country, the law enforcement authorities have had difficulty nabbing or prosecuting the criminals. Meanwhile, the ever-evolving varieties of phone scams and their growing sophistication make everyone a potential victim.

The Daegu District Court ruling has set a precedent allowing phone scammers to be convicted as members of crime syndicates. Even those who join at the lowest level of the criminal group’s hierarchy will not be able to escape criminal prosecution. The possibility of long jail terms and heavy fines should act as a deterrent against people joining voice phishing groups.