[Created using ChatGPT]
[Created using ChatGPT]

A, who needed quick cash, was persuaded that registering as a business owner would allow him to take out a loan, and signed up as a delivery agency operator. An illegal lender working in collusion with a phone rental company had A sign a phone rental contract and fill out an installation confirmation form to make it appear legitimate — then used the contract as collateral to issue a loan at an annual interest rate exceeding 150%. When A fell behind on repayments, the lender sold the debt to another firm and used a collection agency to threaten criminal charges, effectively evading the Moneylenders Act.

The Financial Supervisory Service issued a Caution-level consumer alert Monday, warning that illegal lenders are increasingly colluding with phone rental companies to push high-interest loans and that fraudsters are luring victims with eSIM side-job schemes to steal investment funds through quasi-investment fraud.

The FSS referred to police eight illegal lending cases and 15 quasi-investment fraud cases drawn from complaints and tips filed this year against the same operators. The new schemes were uncovered through cooperation with the Gyeonggi Province Southern Police Agency and the Seoul Yeongdeungpo Police Station.

In the illegal lending scheme, fraudsters working with phone rental companies persuaded victims to register as business owners — typically as delivery agency operators — exploiting the fact that a business registration allows a person to rent multiple handsets at once.

After locking victims into phone rental contracts, the lenders used those contracts as collateral to issue loans at annual interest rates exceeding 150%. A typical example involved renting 10 handsets at 40,000 won ($27) per day each — worth about 18 million won in total — and demanding repayment of 170,000 won per day for 200 days, equivalent to an annual rate of 160%.

When borrowers could not repay, the lenders either sold the debt to other firms or pursued aggressive collection through debt-collection agencies.

The FSS said fraudulent rental contracts can be weaponized as tools for threats or criminal complaints when borrowers fall behind, and carry a high risk of secondary financial harm through demands for penalty fees and additional rental payments. The illegal lenders also showed calculated cunning by arranging the fake rental contracts verbally, so that if a victim filed a complaint, they could claim the arrangement had nothing to do with the rental contract and sidestep the Moneylenders Act.

The FSS said the scheme "looks like an ordinary rental contract on the surface, but is in substance illegal high-interest lending subject to the Moneylenders Act."

The FSS also warned against quasi-investment fraud in which perpetrators lure victims with promises of high-yield eSIM trading side jobs, collect investment funds, and then disappear.

The fraudsters built fake online platforms, assigned each investor a virtual storefront, and recruited participants by promising returns whenever travelers or foreign visitors purchased eSIM products from their assigned shop.

They promoted the scheme as a legitimate business through fake reviews posted on YouTube and SNS. In the early stages, they paid out actual returns to build investor trust. But when victims tried to withdraw their earnings, the operators stalled on payouts, then shut down their websites and vanished.

An FSS official said high-yield investments carry a high risk of principal loss, and that any solicitation promising both principal protection and high returns should be treated as a likely quasi-investment fraud scheme.


ehkim@heraldcorp.com