Golf trip scam
South Korea’s Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency (KNPA) has reported successfully taking down a crime ring that lured wealthy individuals to Thailand and Cambodia on the promise of golf trips.
rigged casino losses
According to reports, the crime gang extorted six victims lured on such trips via rigged casino losses or false accusations of having sex with a minor.
Korea JoongAng Daily cited the police as saying they had arrested 12 members of the illegal gang on charges including extortion. Those taken into custody included the mastermind, a 60-year-old whom the authorities dubbed “Mr. A.”
Police are looking for another national who oversaw operations in Thailand, with plans to extradite the fugitive to face justice in South Korea. The suspects are accused of swindling ₩1.19bn ($860,000).
Hole-in-one kickstarts scam
According to reports, Mr. A met the initial victim at a golf event, telling him he’d won free tickets to Thailand for landing a hole-in-one.
Upon arrival in the country, however, while the rest of the South Korean group played golf, the victim was cajoled into sexual acts with a prostitute the crime gang later claimed was a minor, demanding ₩240m ($172,640) to cover up a potential police investigation.
Mr. A and his cronies hatched their first ruse in November 2022. During the KNPA probe, another scheme was exposed in which the mastermind and six other accomplices allegedly approached five new victims at golf driving ranges.
The group invited the victims to Cambodia this time, again offering a golf trip. On arrival, the golfers were encouraged to gamble “at a rigged casino.” They lost ₩950m ($683,369).
Sophisticated scam
Once the gang had locked into their golfer goldmine, it set up specific roles, “including ringleader, recruiter and shill.” According to JoongAng, the organization worked with casinos in Cambodia to entrap victims to incur gambling debts.
The English-language daily reported one instance in which the crime gang “faked a hostage situation” and extorted ₩680m ($489,149) out of a traveler in a single payment.
Reports cited a KNPA spokesperson stating such scams often catch victims unaware and that they “hesitate to report the incidents out of fear that they may be considered accomplices.”
