"I Thought It Was Settlement Work"… Housewife in Her 40s Linked to Voice Phishing Cleared Without Referral

Took on payment-transfer work but claimed "I thought it was a legitimate part-time job"
Police: "Considering her experience as a fraud victim and the circumstances of her voluntary report… hard to recognize intent to aid"

A housewife in her 40s who was working a side part-time job was investigated on suspicion of participating in a voice phishing crime, but the police decided not to refer the case, concluding there was no intent.

The Paju Police Station announced on the 14th that it had decided not to refer the case, citing insufficient evidence, regarding Ms. A, a woman in her 40s who had been booked on suspicion of aiding fraud.

The case began in 2025 when Ms. A, while doing a part-time job that boosted YouTube view counts, became entangled in what is known as a "team mission" scam.

The company side guided her to deposit a certain amount first and then, upon performing the missions, she would be given back her principal plus profits; however, the investigation found that Ms. A instead suffered losses of several million won.

Subsequently, saying it would help her recoup the losses, the company proposed a "cashier" job in which she would receive shopping-mall customers' payments on their behalf and remit them to designated accounts, and it was determined that Ms. A took on the work believing it to be normal settlement work.

Over about a month, Ms. A remitted a total of about 448 million won across 171 occasions. However, when the funds were confirmed to be voice phishing victims' money, she came under police investigation on suspicion of being an accomplice to fraud.

During the investigation, Ms. A claimed she had been entirely unaware of the criminal activity. She also stated that immediately after receiving a call from a financial institution saying her account appeared to have been used in a crime, she went to the police station herself and voluntarily reported it.

The police made the decision not to refer the case, comprehensively considering that Ms. A had herself suffered about 4 million won in damage from the team mission scam, that her lack of financial knowledge made it difficult for her to fully grasp the structure of the crime, and that she reported it herself after recognizing the abnormal transactions.

Attorney Wi Dae-young of Daeryun Law Firm, who represented Ms. A, stated, "Recently, there have been not a few cases in which job seekers suffering financial hardship are deceived into simple settlement work and used for crimes," adding, "In voice phishing cases, the key issue is often whether the person tolerated the crime while knowing about it."

He added, "We demonstrated the absence of intent through the fact that the client had first suffered fraud damage and was then used in the crime, as well as through the messages exchanged with the other party."

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