Man arrested for defrauding cellphone users

SEOUL, June 11 (Yonhap) -- Police have busted a cellphone fraud ring suspected of
defrauding several hundreds of thousands of mobile phone users through deceptive
text messages, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Thursday.

The agency said the leader of the scam ring, identified only by his family name
Jung, 35, was arrested on charges of having swindled about 400,000 mobile phone
subscribers out of 1.7 billion won (US$1.36 million) between 2006 and 2007.
Jung is accused of setting up four bogus mobile contents companies in Seoul to
use them in his fraud scheme, the police agency said.
In his scam, Jung and his accomplices indiscriminately sent intriguing text
messages to unspecified individuals by posing as their acquaintances or friends
and tricked them into calling back, according to police investigators.
They said one of the most frequently used fraudulent messages was "I'm the girl
you met before. Call me."
All respondents who chose to make a return call were automatically charged 2,990
won by Jung's companies every time their calls got through, said the
investigators. Police detained Jung's accomplices in 2007 but failed to arrest
him for two years.
Under current telecom service regulations, a mobile contents service fee of less
than 3,000 won can be arbitrarily charged by its providers without confirming the
intention of subscribers.
Police said Jung had taken advantage of the regulatory loophole and his victims
were not aware of the cash payment until they received a bill a month later.
"Personal identification should be immediately introduced in the wireless payment
system to prevent similar frauds," a police investigator said. "Responding to
unknown numbers could turn out to be very costly," he said.
brk@yna.co.kr
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