How to deal with quasi-receipt fraud according to a lawyer?

According to the National Police Agency's 'Pre-indictment confiscation and collection preservation status by year' on the 1st, the crime proceeds confiscated and collected by the police last year were KRW 1.2684 trillion, a 151% increase compared to KRW 506 billion in 2023. This can be interpreted as a significant increase in multi-damage fraud crimes such as multi-level marketing, voice phishing, and quasi-receipt investment. In particular, in the case of multiple fraud crimes, it was revealed that the amount of compensation increased by about 160% in one year from 315.4 billion won in 2023 to 815.6 billion won in 2024.

Quasi-receipt activity refers to all fundraising activities that attract investment funds without obtaining permission or permission from the law, and caution is required due to the large amount and scale of damage. In particular, because the boundary between ‘legal investment’ and ‘illegal investment’ is often blurred, people often realize that they have been scammed only after the incident has occurred.

Attorney Yoon Jeong-hyeon of Daeryun Law Firm, which specializes in the field of financial legal affairs, said that if you have been a victim of such a crime, “evidence must be secured quickly and an application for provisional seizure of the offender’s property must be made quickly.”

Below are related questions and answers.

-What are the legal differences between the characteristics of ‘quasi-receipt acts’ and the general crime of fraud and punishment?

▲The crime of fraud requires the misappropriation of property profits through deceptive acts, but the act of quasi-receipt constitutes the act of raising funds from an unspecified number of people by promising to guarantee the principal without permission. Quasi-receipts are subject to imprisonment of up to 5 years or a fine of up to 50 million won. Fraud is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and if the amount of fraud is more than 500 million won, the punishment is aggravated according to the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes.

-If there are key characteristics or risk signals that the general public can distinguish from legitimate investments.

▲The fact that an unauthorized company simultaneously promises ‘principal guarantee’ and ‘confirmed high profit’ is a key characteristic of illegal quasi-receipt practices. In addition, unclear business models, payment of allowances when attracting new investors, lack of permission from financial authorities, excessive use of images of celebrities, and inducement of additional investment after payment of profits are representative risk signals.

-What is the first thing a victim should do when they find out they have been scammed, and is there a realistic way to get their investment money back other than filing a criminal complaint?

▲When damage occurs, you must secure evidence such as investment contracts and deposit details and quickly file a criminal complaint. Separate from criminal punishment, a civil lawsuit for damages is necessary to recover damages. A realistic way to recover from damage is to apply for preservation measures such as provisional seizure or injunction to tie up the perpetrator's assets before litigation.

-These days, there are a lot of new types of scams. What are the characteristics of these latest fraud methods?

▲The latest quasi-receipt activity has the characteristic of making it difficult to identify the true nature of the business by promoting technical technical terms such as virtual assets, NFT (non-fungible tokens), and RWA (real-world linked assets). They usually use a method of creating a plausible homepage or white paper, attracting investment using listings on famous exchanges, and then setting a ‘lock-up’ period to tie up investors’ funds. It is also necessary to carefully examine cases where new members are invited to group rooms via text or KakaoTalk, claiming that losses can be made up through YouTube or blogs.

-There are times when the boundary between legal investment attraction and illegal quasi-receipt activities is vague. How to distinguish the difference between the two.

▲The clearest classification criterion is the presence or absence of a ‘principal guarantee agreement’. While legal investments require notification of the possibility of loss of principal, quasi-receipt activities raise funds from an unspecified number of people by promising to guarantee principal. Additionally, legitimate investment brokerage companies are registered with financial authorities and are subject to management and supervision.

Reporter Kwon Byeong-seok (bsk730@fnnews.com)

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