A South Korean male suspect accused of running romance scams from a base in Cambodia was forcibly deported from Vietnam to South Korea the day before yesterday.
Yonhap reported yesterday that South Korea’s National Police Agency and Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism received two suspects deported from Vietnam through Incheon International Airport on the morning of the 27th. One, a man in his 30s identified as A, was a member of a romance-scam organisation. The other, a man in his 40s identified as B, was the overall operator of an operation suspected of illegally uploading more than 15,000 domestic and foreign films, television productions and web novels to online file-storage services.
A is suspected of operating with 65 members of the organisation from a base in the southern Cambodian border city of Bavet since last year, causing 192 victims losses of 4.6 billion won. He allegedly approached victims through social media while posing as a woman, cultivated romantic relationships and induced them to invest.
A had reportedly been based in Bavet but secretly crossed into Vietnam by land in October as Cambodia intensified its crackdown. South Korean police arranged his return after consultations with Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security and the South Korean Consulate-General in Ho Chi Minh City.
B, deported alongside him, is accused of illegally uploading domestic and foreign films, television dramas and web novels to 17 online file-storage websites between 2020 and 2024.
Repatriation accelerated after B’s case was included in I-SOP, a project to tackle online copyright infringement jointly funded by the National Police Agency and Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. At the request of the Gyeonggi Southern Provincial Police Agency, INTERPOL issued a Red Notice for B. Vietnamese public security authorities arrested him in October on suspicion of overstaying.
