Lured to Cambodia with free flights and meals, victims were beaten and robbed of their bank accounts

By Kim Do-yoon, The Herald Business

"Recruiting account holders — personal, corporate and crypto." "You'll stay at a hotel with our staff." "We'll match your rate urgently." "Round-trip flights covered. Korean meals provided."

Posts like these appeared openly on an online community called "Hades Cafe" and on Telegram — platforms identified as recruitment channels for overseas criminal organizations. In the criminal underworld's slang, terms such as "account holder" refer to both the person lending their name to an account and the recruiter who signs them up.

Victims who responded to the posts became targets.

Enticed by promises of airline tickets in exchange for a passport photo, they flew to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, only to be confined at a compound in Sihanoukville, where they were beaten and threatened for two to six weeks before their bank accounts were seized.

Police arrested 20 people connected to the operation — including ring members who recruited account holders in Cambodia, secured the accounts and passed them to voice-phishing organizations, as well as domestic recruiters.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's wide-area investigation unit announced Tuesday that it had arrested eight members of the ghost-account distribution ring — including the 30-year-old ringleader identified only as A — on charges of organizing a criminal enterprise, luring victims abroad, unlawful confinement, aggravated assault and violations of the Electronic Financial Transactions Act. Six of the eight were detained. Three domestic recruiters and nine account holders were referred to prosecutors without detention.

According to police, ringleader A set up a base of operations in Phnom Penh around July last year, securing accommodation and vehicles before dividing the criminal organization into five roles: team leader, mid-level managers, domestic recruiters, account-holder recruiters, and surveillance and control personnel.

The investigation found that the group sold ghost accounts to overseas phishing organizations, collecting between 10 million and 20 million won (about $13,000) per account.

The ringleader paid lower-ranking members a monthly salary of 2 million to 4 million won and offered an additional incentive of 1 million to 2 million won for each account holder they recruited.

To maximize the accounts' usefulness, the organization instructed account holders to raise their transfer limits as high as possible — setting each account to allow transfers of up to 100 million won per transaction and up to 500 million won per day.

The group also took steps to prevent accounts from being frozen or suspended. It paid overdue bills such as phone charges on behalf of account holders and prepared a script directing them to call bank representatives directly to have any blocks lifted.

One victim, identified only as B, was caught secretly photographing the route from the airport to the Sihanoukville accommodation on a mobile phone. B was then beaten and tortured in front of other account holders, and the organization filmed the assault and shared the footage with its members.

Police launched the investigation in October last year after receiving a tip that account holders were being assaulted in Cambodia.

Arrests began in November last year and continued in sequence. In May, police also detained a so-called "porter" — a member responsible for transporting victims from the airport to the safe house.

Police said they have requested Interpol red notices for two ring members still believed to be in Cambodia and vowed to pursue them until apprehended.

"Lending out an account in your own name is itself a criminal offense," a police official said. "People should be especially wary if they are being offered high-paying part-time work or large cash payments as a condition of traveling abroad — such offers are very likely connected to phishing or money-laundering criminal organizations."