South Korean police have arrest a suspected crypto scammer who allegedly preyed on “housewives and workplace staff.”
In response to the broadcaster SBS, officers in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, arrested a 38-year-old man.
He was handed over to prosecutors on fraud-related costs.
Officers claimed the person duped his victims out of round $218,000.
He allegedly informed them that they’d be “assured” “excessive income” in the event that they invested in his mission.
The person reportedly informed his alleged victims that they’d obtain their stakes again, together with their income, by shopping for “crypto” from “abroad platforms.”
Officers mentioned the person operated the suspected scheme from September 2019 to August 2022.
The person allegedly posed because the director of a well-known inventory buying and selling firm.
However he seems to have assumed a spread of various identities in a bid to dupe extra alleged victims.
He additionally pretended to be a profitable crypto dealer at occasions, and even posed as well-qualified civil servant.
Police mentioned the person frequented investment- and crypto-themed group chats on the KakaoTalk chat app platform in a bid to search out “housewives and workplace staff to focus on.”
And officers added that the person had been investigated as a part of crypto fraud-related circumstances prior to now.
However, they mentioned, detectives had been pressured to desert their probes when he moved funds to “abroad cryptocurrency exchanges.”
Police mentioned they man informed suspected victims he would put money into tokens that he knew have been about to be listed on main exchanges.
However, they mentioned, he as a substitute used the alleged victims’ funds to gamble in on-line crypto-powered casinos.
Rise in South Korean ‘Crypto Scammers?’
In March, police chiefs introduced the formation of a brand new devoted crypto scam-fighting unit.
Crypto scams are on the rise in South Korea.
And police are additionally battling a pointy rise in crypto-powered drug dealing.
The nation’s President final month pledged to “wage all-out battle” on crypto-powered drug merchants.