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Leader of fake lottery prediction crime ring sentenced to prison after stealing $28 million

Published: 30 Oct. 2025, 22:03

An image of a statue of Justitia, the Roman goddess of justice [KOREA JOONGANG DAILY]

The leader of a criminal ring that operated a fake lottery prediction website received a 12-year prison sentence for defrauding victims out of more than 40 billion won ($28 million) over the course of two years, the court said on Thursday.

The Incheon District Court ordered the ringleader to forfeit 10.5 billion won. The court also sentenced 52 members of the group, including a team supervisor in their 30s, to suspended prison terms ranging from one to two and a half years and imposed fines on others.

The scam ran from January 2021 to April 2023 in Incheon. The central figure behind the operation directed 52 others in managing a website that falsely promised users scientifically derived lottery numbers.

The organization promoted its so-called “lottery number prediction engine,” which it claimed used math to forecast winning numbers. Victims were encouraged to pay for subscriptions, lured by offers of full refunds if they did not win. In reality, the numbers were randomly generated, and the engine did not exist.

The court found that the ring had headquarters and nine branch offices, where members coordinated campaigns to find victims.

Each Saturday, the website uploaded the numbers that its engine had “predicted,” then altered them after the draw to match the actual winning numbers, creating the illusion that its predictions had been accurate.

Operators also profiled victims based on their financial vulnerability, pushing them to purchase more expensive packages by exaggerating the site's accuracy.

The court said the group manipulated the hopes of people in financial distress and described the crimes as highly malicious.

“If the court fails to impose appropriate punishment, similar copycat crimes are likely to follow,” the court said. “The leader had prior convictions for fraud and drunk driving and carried out the operation while already being a repeat offender.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM EUN-BIN [[email protected]]