[Herald DB]
[Herald DB]

A man in his late 30s who posed as a doctor on social media to defraud women of tens of millions of won has been sentenced to prison.

The Cheongju District Court's Criminal Division 1, presided over by Judge Park Gwang-min, sentenced A, 39, to eight months in prison and ordered his immediate detention. He had been indicted without detention on fraud charges.

A met a woman in her 30s, identified as B, through a KakaoTalk open chat room last May and deceived her into believing he was a doctor at a university hospital, then promised to marry her. He went on to receive a total of about 78 million won ($58,300) from B in eight separate transfers between May and June of that year, under pretexts including vehicle repair costs from a drunk-driving accident, inheritance taxes and loan repayments.

In November of the same year, A approached another woman in her 30s, identified as C, through a dating app using the same method and defrauded her of 3 million won.

A deceived the victims by claiming he was repaying his father's debts and that his bank account had been frozen in the process, requiring funds to lift the freeze.

"The defendant has prior convictions for similar offenses, his methods were highly unscrupulous, and he has not reached a settlement with B," the court said in its ruling. "However, we took into account that C's damages have been substantially recovered."


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