Police crackdown on rental system fraudsters nets results

Police officials announce the results of a yearlong crackdown on home rental scams at the Seoul Government Complex in the capital city on June 8. [Yonhap]

A yearlong special crackdown on home rental scams resulted in the apprehension of nearly 3,500 suspects nationwide, the National Police Agency (NPA) said Monday, as a recent spate of jeonse (large lump sum deposits) frauds targeting low-income people emerges as a social problem.

The NPA's National Office of Investigation said a total of 3,466 jeonse scam suspects were caught in the crackdown conducted jointly with the prosecution and the land ministry from July 25 last year to last Sunday, with 367 of them put under formal arrest.

Jeonse refers to a unique Korean system in which renters give landlords a large returnable deposit instead of paying monthly rent. But the long-term deposit rental system has recently emerged as a big social issue due to a large number of fraud cases, in which scammers usually buy homes without much money through a series of jeonse contracts and refuse to return the deposits at the end of the lease.

Those busted in the crackdown included 13 scam organizations that own 11,680 houses nationwide without their own capital and 21 fraud groups accused of embezzling jeonse funds worth 78.8 billion won ($61.5 million), the office said.

Also apprehended were 629 real estate agents, 88 real estate brokerage platform operators and illegal brokers, as well as 22 certified public appraisers involved in the manipulation of real estate prices, it added.

The office said 5,013 jeonse fraud victims were confirmed and their financial damages hit 608 billion won. More than half of the victims, 57.9 percent, or 2,903 people, were in their 20s and 30s.

Authorities plan to extend the special crackdown until the end of the year in order to thoroughly root out these scams.

Yonhap