Gang impersonated regulators from overseas call center

Pan-government TF, NIS, Foreign and Justice ministries joined forces

Suspects nabbed just over 3 months after setting up in Kazakhstan

The Korean National Police Agency said Wednesday it arrested members of a Kazakhstan-based scam organization in a joint operation with Kazakh authorities. [Korean National Police Agency]
The Korean National Police Agency said Wednesday it arrested members of a Kazakhstan-based scam organization in a joint operation with Kazakh authorities. [Korean National Police Agency]

A pan-government joint task force on transnational crime said Wednesday it raided a voice phishing organization's hideout in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in a joint operation with Kazakh authorities, arresting 14 Korean members of the group. The suspects detained on the ground were repatriated to South Korea in stages over the course of a week beginning July 28.

The Korean National Police Agency said the operation marked "the first time the South Korean government has struck at the source of a Korean scam organization based in Central Asia," adding that the 14 suspects were arrested in a surprise raid on the group's offices carried out in close coordination with Kazakh authorities before being sent back to Korea one by one. At the same time, five additional members who had been acting as domestic operatives inside South Korea were also arrested.

According to police, the organization had originally operated out of Cambodia before moving through Vietnam and relocating to Kazakhstan around April as local crackdowns intensified. After setting up a call center in the Almaty area, the group impersonated government agencies — including the Financial Supervisory Service — to defraud 16 victims in South Korea of a combined total of around 600 million won ($435,000).

Dismantling the group, which had continued its crimes by repeatedly shifting its base of operations, was the result of coordinated pan-government action. The Korean National Police Agency detected signs that the organization had moved from Cambodia into Kazakhstan, while the National Intelligence Service activated its intelligence-sharing channel with Kazakh authorities. Building on years of cooperation with Kazakhstan's National Security Committee (KNB) in areas including counterterrorism, the police agency and the NIS conducted the joint operation on the ground. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs supported field operations, and the Ministry of Justice initiated international criminal judicial assistance procedures.

A TF official said the joint operation confirmed "a criminal trend in which Korean scam organizations that had been active in Cambodia are moving their bases beyond Southeast Asia to third-party regions," adding that the swift arrests were significant in that they "preemptively prevented the criminal organization from taking root in Kazakhstan."

The official said the Kazakhstan operation demonstrated "the government's strong resolve to pursue and arrest scam criminal organizations targeting our citizens no matter where in the world they hide," and said authorities would "mobilize every available means to ensure that transnational crimes destroying the lives of citizens are met with consequences."


arin@heraldcorp.com