Criminals who confess to their involvement in voice and messaging scams by the end of October will receive clemency per an announcement made by the Korean National Police Agency. The ‘special reporting period’ runs for 8 weeks having begun in September, a few days before the Korean holiday of Chuseok, a period when scammers can be especially active. Lenient sentences and financial rewards are being offered to criminals who provide intelligence about the operation of call centers or money laundering networks that are run from overseas and which profit from:
- scams using voice calls;
- scams using mobile messaging;
- investment scams; and
- romance scams.
The police are particularly interested in talking to people who perform specific roles for the scam gangs. Those roles include:
- managing or working in scam call centers;
- sending scam text messages;
- corporate insiders who leaked personal data;
- anyone involved in operating or supplying equipment for comms relay stations; and
- money mules.
The detailed contents of the police press release indicate that South Korean law enforcement agencies have a more sophisticated understanding of the methods used by scam syndicates than is typically exhibited by their counterparts in Western countries. The latter continues to behave as if the criminals who abuse networks are isolated amateurs who work in a cottage industry. In contrast, South Korea’s police are overtly appealing for help from Koreans who work for crimelords with multinational operations.
The South Korean authorities have recognized that anti-scam controls implemented by comms providers are being circumvented using elaborate methods including the establishment of in-country relay stations that connect a local mobile call to voice transmitted over the internet from scam compounds in other countries. South Koreans are lured to work in these compounds by offers of good pay. They are sought by criminal gangs because their native language skills increases the chances of scams being successful.
To facilitate whistleblowing by Koreans working in foreign scam compounds, the police have committed to running ‘reporting offices’ inside Cambodia, China and the Philippines. A further sign that the police is conscious of the international scale of crime is that informants can provide their information through family members or other go-betweens, as an alternative to contacting the police directly. This may appeal to Koreans who are uncertain about whether it is worth taking the risk of leaving their criminal work to return to South Korea.
The announcement includes a rate card for the financial incentives to be paid to informants. An informant providing intelligence about phone scams that generated criminal profits exceeding KRW5bn (USD3.8mn) could receive payments up to KRW100mn (USD76,000). However, it was also stated that punishments will be strictly applied to scammers caught after the end of the special reporting period.
Awareness of the special reporting period is being raised through an animated video on YouTube as well as by encouraging the mainstream media to circulate the details. The press release issued by the police is here and you can play the YouTube video below.
