Swiss man flies to Korea, gives $150K to romance scammer posing as woman

The romance scammer, middle, gets caught in act at Gongdeok Station in Mapo District, western Seoul on Feb. 15. [SCREEN CAPTURE/JOONGANG PHOTO]

A Swiss man flew to Korea to catch his thought-to-be female romance scammer, who turned out to be a man.

The scammer was arrested last month.

The Korean romance scammer initially introduced himself as a woman in her 20s, extorting a total of $149,000 from the victim, according to local media reports.

The money came from his late father’s death insurance, which left him with $250,000.

The scammer approached the victim via Instagram DM, or direct message, in December of last year, and the two were communicating with each other since then.

“The victim was in a vulnerable state when the two started messaging each other online,” the victim’s attorney said on local broadcaster CBS’s radio program Tuesday. “The scammer introduced himself as a Korean woman, and the two quickly got close, forming a trustful relationship.”

The victim first sent $40,000 to the scammer who claimed the money would be used for a flight to Switzerland.

After the victim had sent the initial amount of money, the scammer kept asking for more money, citing reasons such as his family being sick or wanting to marry the victim.

All together, the scammer's requests amounted to $149,000.

This raised suspicion of a potential romance scam to the victim as the scammer constantly changed the amount of money needed for his deposit and the reasons why he needed the money.

The attorney said that he was also at odds when he first got in contact with the victim, following the victim’s consultation request in January via email.

He said he couldn’t understand why the victim sent money to someone whom he had never met and had only communicated with through message.

The victim came to Korea on Feb. 2 to confirm his suspicion.

“At first, the victim did not show me the [intimate] messages [he had with the scammer] as they had some sexual content,” the attorney said. “Later, when I saw the messages, the two individuals seemed to be deeply committed to each other and planning to get married. The relationship was shown to be tied with strong trust.”

However, when the victim asked the scammer to meet him in person, the scammer started to avoid him, citing reasons such as “being locked up in a creditor’s office,” “visiting the hospital,” and "being unable to meet because he didn't give the requested money."

While avoiding meeting the victim in person, the scammer continued requesting money from the victim.

An investigation started after the victim submitted a complaint to the Mapo Police Precinct on Feb. 8.

The victim lured the scammer by sending a photo of an envelope filled with $100,000 and telling the scammer that the money was put in a locker at Gongdeok Station in Mapo District, western Seoul.

“At first, we thought the person who came to grab the money was just an assistant withdrawing the money. However, he was found to be the actual scammer, having the same name as the scammer’s PayPal account,” the attorney said.

The scammer was caught in the act in February, and was a man in his 30s.

He was later indicted on a charge of fraud under detention by the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office on Feb. 29.

According to the Korea Legal Aid Corporation, the number of consultations regarding romance scams increased to 88 cases last year, which is a significant increase compared to 2019 with 22 cases.

The damage cost also showed a major increase with 3.96 billion won ($3.01 million) in 2022, a 13 times increase from the 2020s with 320 million won.

“A romance scam is a crime committed after a trust relationship has been established,” the attorney said. “So it is difficult to mentally recover after being scammed.”

“It is better to avoid meeting a partner online and it is best to raise suspicion of a romance scam when somebody asks for money after getting close.”

BY LEE HAY-JUNE, KIM JI-YE [kim.jiye@joongang.co.kr]