“Ho-Gang-nim. Can I take the place of coin investment?”… A’trading scam’ in the wake of the surge in cryptocurrency

Input 2021.04.06 06:00

Recently, as the price of cryptocurrency such as bitcoin has risen significantly, more and more people are interested in investment. Using this investment sentiment, a new type of fraudulent method that takes profit by approaching to take advantage of the virtual currency investment is also on the rise.

A 45-year-old self-employed man, who was recently entrusted with virtual currency investment, filed a complaint with the police last week for fraud. On the 5th, Mr. A confessed about the damage he suffered through a telephone interview with this magazine.

Mr. A said, “I have deposited more than 40 million won in money from last February to a person who will provide a virtual currency investment agency, but they are not getting the money back.” He complained, “At first, because of the greed that money can be made easily, and later because of the mind to get the principal back, I was suspicious of fraud, but I had no choice but to continue to respond to the demands of the business owners.”

By combining Mr. A’s statement and the contents of the complaint filed with the police, the case is summarized as follows.

In February, Mr. A received an advertisement message for Kakao Talk entitled’High return on investment.’ When he clicked on an advertisement message out of curiosity and entered the Kakao Talk room, Mr. B, the operator, suggested that he invest only 100,000 won, saying that he would make cryptocurrency revenue for free.

Mr. A presumed to be deceived and deposited 100,000 won to the C exchange site guided by Mr. B. A, who thought that he could make a lot of money after doubled profits within a few hours of investment, made a deposit of 5 million won to the C exchange and asked Mr. B to act as a trading agent.

After about a week, Mr. A requested withdrawal from Exchange C to recover the investment, but with various excuses, the withdrawal was rejected. It was announced that withdrawal is possible only when additional deposits are made. Afterwards, Mr. A deposited 9 million won, 1365 million won, and 18 million won to the C exchange one after another, but he did not receive any money back. The amount that Mr. A has deposited so far has reached a total of 45 million won.

Mr. A said, “If the ratio of profits to investment (from C Exchange) is too high, it will be subject to a tax audit by the Financial Supervisory Service, and withdrawals will not be possible, but we have been informed that withdrawal is possible if the deposit amount is increased.”

In the end, Mr. A pulled all the funds he could mobilize and made the deposit as requested by the C Exchange, but the amount of additional deposit required only increased. Mr. A said, “The exchange said,’If you deposit an additional 31 million won after opening a Swiss bank account, we will withdraw all the money deposited so far.’ said.

Mr. A sighed, “I questioned this problem with Mr. B, who approached the investment agency in the name of the exchange, but he pretended not to tell him to talk to Exchange C.” He said, “In the end, Mr. B and Exchange C, who provided the investment agency service, were in one box.” Exhaled.

After refusing to make additional deposits to a Swiss bank account, Mr. A was unable to log into the C Exchange site. Mr. A said, “Because of security issues at the exchange, the account password was changed and access to the site became impossible,” he said. “Because there is no exchange customer center phone number, complaints were only possible with a one-to-one inquiry on the site.”

Kim Ki-yoon, a lawyer at the Kim Ki-yoon Law Firm, said, “There is an increasing trend of new cryptocurrency fraudulent methods that prevent withdrawals by making fake exchange sites, making them believe that they are actually trading, and then depositing large amounts of money.”

He said, “If the representative of the exchange on the corporate register or the operator of the Kakao Talk reading room uses the name of the cannon, it is very difficult to arrest the actual operator. In particular, unlike voice phishing, in the case of general fraud, the police investigation proceeds and the account is seized. It takes a long time, so there is a possibility that the number of victims will increase,” he added.