Mr. A, an office worker in his 60s living in Los Angeles, recently received a call from a number matching that of the Korean Embassy in the United States (202-939-5663, 202-939-5600). The caller, who identified himself as Park Sung-joon, an official with the Embassy’s Incident and Accident Team, threatened him, claiming that a Korean court had issued a warrant for his arrest.
The caller even provided a link to a website where Mr. A could verify the arrest warrant.
“When I accessed the link, I was taken to a site called the Ministry of Justice’s Criminal Justice Portal. After entering my name and resident registration number, a warrant for my arrest appeared, allegedly issued by the Seoul Central District Court. The warrant listed charges of drug trafficking, passport sale and rental, and violations of electronic financial transaction laws,” said Mr. A.
Mr. A, who was so flustered that he nearly fell for the scam upon receiving the call, said, “Moreover, the website I accessed looked almost identical to the official Korean government website.”
He continued, “But the charges were so absurd that I hung up and contacted the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Los Angeles, who informed me that it was a scam,” letting out a sigh of relief. It turned out that the caller, who had introduced himself as Park Sung-joon, was a fraudster.
The scammer reportedly continued to emphasize the seriousness of the situation over the phone, pressuring Mr. A to click on a link to a fake website (im.bdata923.com).
Recently, a new type of fraud has been on the rise, in which scammers impersonate employees of Korean diplomatic missions, police officers, prosecutors, and officials from the Ministry of Justice, making vigilance essential.
These fraudsters commonly use scare tactics, claiming that an arrest warrant has been issued against their target, and then demanding personal information and money transfers.
In particular, the scammers have become so sophisticated that it is difficult for the average person to distinguish the fake website from the Ministry of Justice’s Criminal Justice Portal, as the only difference lies in the web address. Additionally, they have forged arrest warrants so convincingly that many Koreans are easily deceived.
Moreover, the scammers have even gone so far as to use the real phone number of the Korean Embassy in the U.S. to make their calls appear legitimate.
Officials have warned that the fake website domain addresses end in ‘~.com’, instead of ‘~go.kr’ which is the official domain used by Korean government agencies.
The Korean Embassy in the United States and the Consulate General in Los Angeles have advised people to be cautious and immediately suspect fraud if they receive a call from an overseas diplomatic mission claiming that a warrant has been issued.
The Korean Embassy in the United States reported that it has been receiving an average of three to four complaints related to voice phishing per day since December of last year. Some victims have reportedly been tricked into sending more than $60,000 to scammers.
Bongju Kim, the Consular Officer in Charge of Overseas Safety at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the United States, said in a phone interview with the Korea Daily, “Most of the complaints we receive are from people calling to verify whether an employee with the name mentioned by the scammer actually works at the embassy.”
“There has been a growing number of cases where scammers impersonating prosecutors use drug-related crimes and other incidents as pretexts for voice phishing,” he added.
“Public institutions do not directly verify or request personal information over the phone or online,” said Kim. “You should always be suspicious of such calls, as they are likely voice phishing scams.”
BY HYOUNGJAE KIM, HANGIL KANG [kim.ian@koreadaily.com]
