<Anchor>



As a result of the special police crackdown, half of the confirmed victims of charter fraud were found to be in their 20s and 30s.

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong predicted that the damage from charter fraud would reach its peak this year.



The first news, reporter Sagong Seong-geun reports.



<Reporter>



Mr. A, in his 30s, signed a charter contract with the intention of staying for only two years before getting married.



Although it is a newly built officetel, it is cheaper than the surrounding area, and the landlord said that he would subscribe to the deposit guarantee insurance, so he signed the contract without hesitation.



However, after he paid the balance, he found out that he had been scammed.



[Mr. A / Victim of charter fraud in his 30s: Since it is difficult to repay the lease loan, it is difficult to imagine marriage or a large amount of money now.]



Since July of last year, the police have launched a nationwide special crackdown on charter fraud. As a result, half of the confirmed victims were concentrated in newcomers in their 20s and 30s like Mr. A.



Those in their 30s accounted for the most with 31.4%, followed by those in their 20s with 18.5%.



In terms of the method, there were many cases in which homeless youth were intercepted with fake charter contracts after getting loans with government guarantees.



The number of fraud suspects arrested within a year increased eightfold to 1,900.



[Yoon Hee-geun / Commissioner of the National Police Agency: A total of 618 cases of 1,941 people were arrested and 168 people were arrested in relation to charter fraud, including the arrest of 373 realtors who engaged in illegal brokerage activities.]



Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong pointed out that the cause was the rush of charter damage contracts in the previous government.



[Won Hee-ryong/Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport: As we expected (damage from charter fraud) this year will peak and charter contracts signed by 2021 will come out...

.]



The police announced that they would crack down on charter fraud by extending the special crackdown until July.



(Video coverage: Park Young-il, video editing: Lee So-young, CG: Choi Jae-young)