Korean scam rings are moving their operations to Malaysia and other neighboring countries as crackdowns tighten in Cambodia and other longtime bases, prompting calls for stronger cross-border investigative cooperation as the rings spread across a widening range of countries.
The joint investigation unit on voice phishing crimes at the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office took custody of two Korean members of a fraud ring that impersonated public agencies to induce fake bulk-order purchases from Malaysian authorities at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on July 7, according to reporting by The Seoul Economic Daily on Sept. 16. The unit executed arrest warrants on the two aboard a flight to Korea, and they were detained on July 10 and are now standing trial. It is the first time Korean members of such a fake bulk-order fraud ring based in Malaysia have been arrested there and repatriated.
Malaysian police had arrested the two on May 28 after receiving intelligence and materials from Korean investigators. Both were identified as relatively low-ranking members, such as couriers, rather than ringleaders. The joint unit sees the case as part of a "balloon effect," in which tighter enforcement in established bases such as Cambodia and Laos pushes scam rings toward Malaysia and elsewhere. Under this pattern, call centers and members relocate to nearby countries with looser oversight as one country's enforcement net grows tighter.
A Korean fake bulk-order fraud ring was uncovered in Thailand around the same time. The metropolitan investigation unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency arrested 10 members who had set up a call center at a resort in Pattaya, Thailand, and impersonated public agencies to extort about 600 million won ($430,000) from 22 suppliers in Korea. Eight of them were detained. The Korean ringleader in his or her 50s, who fled the scene, is being tracked. Police are investigating on the assumption that the ringleader may have left Thailand for another country.
Last month, seven people including a ringleader in their 40s were repatriated and all detained over a fake bulk-order fraud ring based in Bac Ninh province, Vietnam, that impersonated officials of public agencies and military units to take about 24.3 billion won ($17.5 million) from more than 630 small business owners in Korea. The ring deceived victims into believing that a public agency or military unit was making a bulk purchase, then induced them to buy goods on its behalf from a designated supplier and took the money. Criminal bases are also expanding into Central Asia. Last month, a Korean voice phishing ring based in Almaty, Kazakhstan, that impersonated the Financial Supervisory Service and prosecutors was uncovered, and a total of 19 people were arrested — 14 in Kazakhstan and five in Korea.
The number of Koreans arrested abroad for involvement in transnational crime is also rising sharply. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 462 Koreans were arrested in six Southeast Asian countries in the first half of this year on suspicion of involvement in transnational crimes such as online scams and gambling, 4.6 times the 100 arrested in the same period last year.
As criminal rings shift bases across multiple countries to evade crackdowns, cooperation with local investigative authorities is becoming more important. During the Malaysia trip, the joint unit sought to directly analyze three desktop computers and one laptop seized by local police but could not do so because a local prosecutor ordered the evidence preserved. It instead received forensic data from the local police. With criminal rings moving quickly across borders, officials say cooperation frameworks between countries must be strengthened at every stage, from intelligence sharing to arrests, repatriation and digital evidence analysis.
A police officer specializing in phishing fraud investigations said, "During the Cambodia crisis, we cleared out one large compound, but the rings dispersed and slipped into nearby countries to continue their fraud." The officer added, "Even in a country where they have been cleared out once, they may move to another city, so we must keep making arrests through continuous cooperation with countries in Southeast Asia as well as neighboring Central Asia."
