"It's rare that people carry that much cash these days, but it's strange."
Park Mo, in his 50s, who works as a building manager in Jangan-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do, noticed something suspicious while watching Mr. A, a man in his 60s, who entered the building at around 5:00 pm on the 1st of last month.
Mr. A went down through the emergency stairs into the basement of a sparsely populated building, and he took out a full bundle of 50,000 won bills from his backpack and started counting.
Mr. Park felt suspicious of Mr. A, who secretly counted the bundles of cash, and was watching from a distance, but Mr. A immediately started heading to the ATM on the first floor of the building.
After seeing Mr. A looking at his phone for a long time and sending money, Mr. Park immediately suspected that he was a victim of phone financial fraud (voice phishing) and called 112.
However, when a police officer who was dispatched after receiving the report investigated Mr. A, who was sending money, it turned out that he was not a victim but a voice phishing cash collector.
At that time, a group of voice phishing organizations to which Mr. A belonged tried to collect 6.7 million won by pretending to be a prosecutor and deceiving that the victim's account was used for the crime and an investigation was necessary.
Mr. A, who was a collection agent, was caught by the police after receiving money from the victim and depositing it to the crew.
Thanks to Mr. Park's report, the victim was able to get 5.7 million won back, excluding the 1 million won that Mr. A had already remitted.
Suwon Jungbu Police Station today (25th) selected Mr. Park as a 'phishing keeper' and delivered a certificate of commendation and compensation for reporting.
'Phishing Keeper' is a name given to citizens who help prevent voice phishing damage and arrest criminals.
Police are running a campaign to spread awareness that anyone can prevent crime if they care.
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(Photo = Provided by Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency, Yonhap News)