Police busted a group of “romance scammers” who had reportedly duped Korean men and women out of 640 million won ($571,000).
According to the Daejeon Police Agency’s Cyber Bureau on Wednesday, two Nigerian men were indicted for running what romance scams targeting Koreans via social media.
The two men were found to be part of a cybercrime syndicate implementing such frauds in several countries. Their accomplices, based outside of Korea, set up fake Facebook profiles and sent friend requests along with affectionate messages to their targets.
Screen shot of Facebook message sent by the scammer (Yonhap)
The scammers posed as heirs to a large inheritance or US soldiers deployed to Afghanistan or Syria. After exchanging messages for weeks and even promising marriage, the scammers said they would send out inheritance money or presents.
Posing as customs officers or delivery people, the Korea-based accomplices called the victims and demanded payment to have the parcel delivered to them. Many victims made the payments, believing their foreign lovers had sent them the gifts.
(Yonhap)
Forty-one Korean victims have been identified, 28 of whom were men and 13 women. The victims came from the age groups ranging from their 20s to 70s. The victims spent from 2 million to 130 million won per person.
“One should have second thoughts when accepting friend requests from an unknown foreign person on social media.” said Lee Sung-seon, chief of the Daejeon Police Agency’s Cyber Bureau. “Putting too much personal information on social media can make you vulnerable to such fraud.”
By Kim Min-joo/ Intern reporter (mjk625@heraldcorp.com)
