Busan police in South Korea have rounded up another 67 members of a massive cross-border voice phishing syndicate, including a Chinese national in his 30s pegged as the main ringleader. Out of the group, 17 have been formally detained, while 50 others are under investigation without detention. According to police, the gang ran overseas call centers that impersonated South Korean prosecutors and financial institutions, tricking roughly 250 victims out of around 5 billion won over several years.
The scam network operated from 2015 all the way through 2021 with a tight division of labor. They had dedicated callers working off target lists, recruiters, cash collectors, and brokers handling bank accounts and SIM cards. To make the trap look real, callers flashed fake official credentials and routed foreign calls through signal repeaters, disguising them as local South Korean numbers starting with "010." It is a familiar setup to anyone watching the regional cyber-scam landscape, where runners sit in rented rooms with headsets on, constantly swapping out SIM cards to keep the scam machine running.
South Korean authorities first set their sights on the group back in 2018 and had already arrested 369 suspects over the years. This latest breakthrough came after investigators analyzed seized smartphones and bank accounts, mapping out call centers based inside China. That allowed police to track down operators inside Korea and nab others who were deported back home. However, 33 accomplices remain on the run overseas. South Korean police have requested Interpol Red Notices, asking international law enforcement to help arrest and extradite them.
