Voice Phishing Job Scams in Korea
We already have introduced the basic concepts of voice phishing crime in the previous article. In this article, we are going to talk about a “job scam” type of victim of voice phishing.
In general, there are two types of victims of voice phishing. The first one is the people who were deceived by the crime syndicate and paid a large amount of money to the syndicate. The crime syndicate uses various methods, including but not limited to classical fraud with ”voice call,” hacking smartphones, making a mock website, and impersonating a prosecutor. If you are not aware of the methods, you could probably be one of the victims sending a bunch of money to the syndicate.
The second type is the victims of the job scam. Deceiving people requires a lot of effort and collecting cash from the victims entails a danger of being caught or exposition of identity. (we call the cash collectors “현금수거책” in Korean) The crime syndicate always needs some people, who will work for them, promising a high profit. And it is never a hard job for the syndicate to make people work for them – it is always good at lies and fraud.
Here is how it works. The crime syndicate advertises for people to work for them. They act as if they are a real company, such as just a money lender, or delivery company. They even have ranked business cards and job advertisement too. They assign you some “work” to receive payment from the “clients.” When you go to the direct place, there is the client, and the client gives you the money. You may succeed at delivering the cash to the syndicate or get caught by the undercover police nearby. This is the “job scam” of voice phishing, and some even call this a “humanized false bank account.” What you wanted is just a job and money, and now you are a criminal.
Problems With Working For a Voice Phishing Crime Syndicate
Why is this matter so problematic? The first reason is that you could be regarded as an “accessory” of the crime syndicate. If you were not the one who planned and manipulated everything, you still had “collected” the real cash from the victim, and then you delivered it to the crime syndicate. This could be considered “aid” described in Article 32 Paragraph 1 of Criminal Act.
Article 32 (Accessories)
(1) Those who aid and abet the commission of a crime by another person shall be punished as accessories.
Though this requires your recognition of a crime or an intention, it could be also acknowledged by “willful negligence (미필적 고의),” a principle that expands the scope of intent. Moreover, to accomplish an accessory, the intent does not have to be specific. The court will say that if you could at least have doubted what you are doing. If you ignored the signals that you might be helping a crime syndicate, then you were aiding it. This shall be the logic of the court.
The second reason is that the court started to regard a voice phishing group as a “criminal group,” which is stipulated in Article 114 of Criminal Act, since Supreme Court Decision 2017Do8600, decided in 2017. 10. 26.
Article 114 (Organization of Criminal Groups, etc.)
A person who organizes a syndicate or group with the intent to commit a crime punishable by death or imprisonment with labor for life or for at least four years or who joins such syndicate or group or becomes a member of such syndicate or group shall be punished by the penalty prescribed for the intended crime: Provided, That the penalty may be mitigated.
Once the “company” you entered is deemed as a criminal group, then you shall be considered a “member” of the syndicate. You shall be punished for aiding the frauds and for “joining” a crime organization. As the Korean government nowadays is trying hard to eradicate voice phishing crimes, its willingness to punish the involved is strong either. Especially if you are a foreigner, you shall be kicked out of Korea.
Cases of Non-Guilty
Still, there are cases where the employees are exempted from punishment. One example is the case 2017 Godan 1727, decided in 2017. 10. 25 by Seoul Eastern District Court (서울동부지방법원 2017고단1727 판결).
In this case, the defendant was preparing for a regular job and tried to find a part-time job for a living. The defendant saw the advertisement by the crime syndicate for a daily-paid part-time job and contacted them. The defendant did not know that it was a crime syndicate because the leader of the syndicate explained that this company helps high-ranking officials or politicians remain unseen. The defendant worked as a cash collector and was caught by police. The defendant was paid 400,000 won per day as wage
The court had judged that the defendant was not guilty. The main reason for that was that it is not sure that the defendant knew it was a voice phishing crime syndicate that the defendant worked for. The defendant vaguely thought that it was not a good job to do, but just collecting the money from the victim does not guarantee the fact the criminal defendant specifically “knew” the company was a voice phishing syndicate.
The second case is the 2020Gohab33 case, decided in 2020. 7. 6. By Cheongju District Court (청주지방법원 2020고합33 판결). The defendant needed to borrow some money from the bank. The crime syndicate told the defendant that to borrow money from the bank, a certain “credit” is required, therefore some trade performances and records are needed. The crime syndicate offered the defendant that if the defendant helps the crime syndicate, then they will help the defendant to forge some records quid pro quo. The defendant helped the crime syndicate collect some money.
Cheongju District Court decided that the defendant was not guilty. The reason for that was the defendant reported the crime to the police. The defendant first thought that the syndicate was just a money lending company, but later became suspicious about the syndicate. Most importantly, the defendant, after receiving 19,000,000 KRW from a victim, did not deliver this money to the syndicate but reported it to the police (and the money was later returned to the victim). This shows that the defendant did not have any intention to be involved with voice phishing crimes.
Conclusion
You must remember that a highly profitable part-time job is never a good job. Why would they give you so much money? The answer is that there is a certain burden of risk that you must bear. And the burden is the possibility of being caught by the police, not knowing that you were helping a voice phishing crime syndicate. However, do not get panicked, but ask for help. Seoul Law Group has various experiences with voice phishing cases.