Why was a man in his 40s not indicted on charges of participating in voice phishing?

A man in his 40s who was accused of converting voice phishing damage into coins and sending them to a withdrawal account was cleared of charges.

According to the legal community on the 1st, the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office decided not to indict Mr. A, a man in his 40s, who was sent last September on charges of the Special Act on Prevention of Damage from Telecommunications and Financial Fraud and Refund of Damages.

Mr. A was accused of receiving a remittance of 26 million won from the victim in December of last year, converting it into coins, and sending it to an electronic wallet designated by the voice phishing remittance agent to swindle the profits.

Mr. A completely denied the charges. He said he thought it was a part-time job as a coin purchasing agent that earns commissions using market differences between domestic and foreign virtual currency exchanges. At the same time, Mr. A explained, “I only perceived it as a normal arbitrage transaction, and had no awareness of being involved in voice phishing crimes.”

Mr. A also emphasized, “At the time, I felt uncomfortable after finishing my work once, so I went to the police station, received counseling, and tried to quit my job. However, the company suddenly deposited an additional 20 million won into my account, saying it was an employee’s mistake, and I tried to return it, but the problem escalated due to the limit.”

The prosecution determined that Mr. A had no intention of participating in the crime. The prosecution said, “At the time, Mr. A tried to return the money that had been mistakenly deposited, but was unable to return it due to the daily transfer limit of only 700,000 won.” “With the company’s continued urging, it was confirmed that Mr. A transferred 1 won each to the victim’s account four times and left a note asking, ‘Are you an agent for purchasing coins?’”

He added, “At the time, the person whose name was unknown responded to the suspect by impersonating the victim’s husband and requesting a purchasing agent, and it appears that the suspect, deceived by this, proceeded to trade coins.”

Attorney Kim Hyun-soo of Daeryun Law Firm, who represented Mr. A, explained, “Pretending to be recruiting part-time workers to purchase virtual currency is one of the new voice phishing methods,” adding, “We were able to obtain a good result by faithfully explaining that there were no circumstances for the suspect to avoid the incident, such as by contacting the police, and that he had no intention of participating in collusion or aiding and abetting.”

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

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