[News Today] Large scale no-show scammers caught

[LEAD]
A crime ring based in Cambodia has been busted for running so-called 'no-show scams' targeting small business owners in Korea. Posing as military personnel, the group placed fake bulk orders and siphoned off billions of won from struggling merchants.

[REPORT]
An official document with the defense ministry's emblem.

The title reads, 'Approval for Purchase of Emergency Fire Safety Supplies'.

It's in fact part of a so-called 'no-show scam'.

The perpetrators first impersonated military unit staff to order rare military gear from an equipment supplier.

Another team later approached the firm and deceived it by saying it had the items in question and snatched away the payment.

Afterwards, contact was lost with both the military staff who placed the order and the team that received the payment.

It's a typical no-show scam.

The perpetrators used diverse methods, such as making restaurant reservations and asking the restaurant to buy expensive wine for them.

Restaurant owner / Avoided becoming victim
The wine seller told us to prepare three bottles of wine and discuss the matter on the phone or via text.

Some 200 people have fallen victim to the scam, with the total amount of damage reaching 3.8 billion won or around 2.5 million US dollars.

To avoid being caught because of large transaction sums, the scammers limited each transaction to about 9 million won or some 6,000 dollars.

Kim Bo-sung / Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office
They forge and modify documents perfectly. Public institutions never demand proxy purchases or proxy payments.

The Joint Investigation Division on Voice Phishing Crimes of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office and the Cambodian authorities have arrested the suspects and indicted 23 of them. They are also tracking down the leader of the ring, a foreign national who is staying overseas.

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