A man in his 20s who deliberately bumped into passersby at crowded shopping malls, dropped his mobile phone and then collected money for supposed repairs has been referred to prosecutors in custody.
Seoul's Songpa Police Station said on the 16th that it had referred the man, identified only as A, to the prosecution service the previous day on fraud charges.
A is accused of approaching pedestrians in crowded places such as shopping malls and subway stations, dropping his own phone and then pretending it had been damaged to collect money for repairs. Over about five months, 38 people were confirmed to have been victimized in this way, with losses exceeding 22 million won, according to the investigation. Most of the victims handed over the money without realizing they had been deceived, police said.
Police opened the investigation after one victim grew suspicious and filed a criminal complaint. After identifying A, investigators concluded that the method pointed to additional offenses and analyzed bank transfer records, uncovering 37 more victims.
Police sought an arrest warrant in advance, but A failed to appear at the court hearing on the warrant and fled. After a search, police arrested him somewhere in South Chungcheong Province, placed him in custody and handed the case to prosecutors on the 15th of this month.
"It was a crime in which the deception was so difficult to notice that most victims handed over the money without realizing it, and even those who felt something was off were unable to report it," police said. "People need to be careful not to fall for similar schemes."
