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A group of fraudsters who bought virtual items such as dresses
online and then extorted money from them by saying that they could sell them back at a high price has been caught by the police. They tried to raise money by blocking the money, and when the number of investors dwindled, they offered to pay their own coins.

Reporter Park Ha-jung covered it.

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A 'Ponzi scheme' gang that stole more than 400 billion won from more than 600 people by deceiving them into thinking that they could earn profits by buying virtual items online and later selling them back has been caught by the police.

The Cyber Investigation Division of the Gyeonggi South Police Agency arrested 18 suspects on suspicion of fraud and detained a company representative and two deputy managers, who are family members.

It was investigated that they set up and operated a P2P site online, held an investment briefing session and recruited members under the guise of guaranteeing principal and high returns, and then deceived the victims by saying that they could earn a profit by buying various virtual items and selling them back after a certain period of time.

Headquartered in Yongin, Gyeonggi, the group operated five branches in the metropolitan area, and advertised to victims that they were guaranteed profits by purchasing fictitious items such as cheongsam, kimonos, and dresses that could be purchased by investment grade at a higher price to subordinate investors if they purchased them first.

However, it turned out that most of the money received in the name of investment was used as a daily salary or profit dividends for senior investors.

Gradually, as the influx of investors decreased, the refund method was changed from traditional cash to self-issued coins, and the coins were tricked into pretending that they were linked to the price of other listed coins.

The police received the same incident in August 2 and started investigating it, and so far, a total of 5 victims have been identified, and the total amount of investment on the site is about 2021 billion won.

(Video editing: Yoon Tae-ho, screen credit: Gyeonggi South Police Agency)