South Korean prosecutors have indicted several young men accused of working for a romance scam ring based in Myanmar, part of a growing network of overseas fraud operations targeting Korean victims.
The Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office said Wednesday that nine men aged 23 to 34 who operated out of a crime compound known as KK Park near the Myanmar-Thailand border were charged with joining and participating in a criminal organization.
Five suspects were indicted in detention, while three were charged without arrest. One additional suspect remains at large.
Prosecutors said the men joined a romance scam network operating inside a crime enclave in Myanmar run by a Chinese ringleader who organized fraud operations targeting Korean victims. The suspects carried out various roles within the organization, including call-center operators who contacted victims, recruiters who brought in new members and supervisors responsible for managing Korean participants in the scheme.
Authorities said several of the suspects later returned to South Korea and joined domestic voice-phishing groups as money-laundering agents.
Investigators said the men learned the structure of scam operations and financial flows while working at the overseas compound. After returning home, they used that knowledge to help process fraud proceeds through bank accounts opened under borrowed identities.
Some were also involved in a tactic known as “pressing accounts,” in which participants withdraw scam proceeds deposited into proxy accounts without authorization from overseas ringleaders. Authorities say the practice illustrates how voice-phishing schemes are evolving as members attempt to divert criminal profits for themselves.
The investigation began in June last year after prosecutors received a tip about the group’s activities.
The probe initially stalled as suspects refused to testify and cut off contact with one another. A breakthrough came after authorities arrested two 26-year-old members of a domestic money-laundering network and discovered a letter instructing accomplices to remain silent about their activities in Myanmar.
The correspondence listed several co-conspirators and urged them not to disclose details of the operation. Prosecutors said the evidence helped dismantle coordinated efforts among the suspects to align their testimonies. Authorities subsequently arrested additional members who had returned from Myanmar and continued participating in domestic fraud schemes.
Investigators also found records on one suspect’s phone outlining the organization’s compensation system. Members were offered a base salary of about $1,500 per month, with commissions tied to the amount of scam proceeds generated.
Documents showed commissions ranging from 5 percent for fraud proceeds between $50,000 and $100,000 to 6 percent for amounts between $100,000 and $150,000. In some cases, the operation handled proceeds equivalent to between about 70 million won and 1.4 billion won ($47,700 to about $955,000), allowing members to earn commissions of up to roughly 160 million won.
hnpark@heraldcorp.com
