Foreigners who operated a device that converts Internet phone calls from overseas voice phishing criminals into domestic mobile phone numbers have been caught by the police.
The International Crime Investigation Division of the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency announced on the 20th that they have apprehended 101 individuals on charges including violations of the Communication Fraud Damage Relief Act and the Telecommunications Business Act, and have referred 16 people, including A, a man in his 20s of Russian nationality who served as the overall distributor, for prosecution.
A and his accomplices are suspected of disguising relay devices, which convert Internet phone numbers starting with 070 into domestic numbers starting with 010, as hard drives and other items, smuggling them into the country, and then installing and operating them in one-room apartments and other locations from November 2025 to September 2026, thereby aiding the phishing organization’s criminal activities.
Of the 101 individuals arrested by the police, 84 were South Korean SIM card providers. They are suspected of receiving between 60,000 and 120,000 Korean won per unit or opening SIM cards under their own names as a condition for loans and handing them over to the organization.
The relay device distribution organization consisted of Russian-speaking foreigners from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and other countries. They entered the country on work or student visas, according to the police. Among them were Russians who applied for refugee status to escape the war.
It was investigated that they recruited members through Russian job boards on Telegram, then divided roles such as equipment distribution, recruitment, transportation, installation, and operation. The relay devices were not handed over in person; instead, they used the “throwing” method, where they would hide the devices and only inform the location, operating in a cell-based structure.
The police launched an investigation after receiving intelligence in February that a large number of SIM card fragments were found in a drain of a one-room building in Busan. After confirming that the SIM cards were used in phishing scams impersonating prosecutors, they apprehended the relay device operators through on-site investigations and analysis of surrounding CCTV footage.
The police then tracked the delivery routes of the SIM cards and equipment, successively arresting the overall distributor A, recruiters, and equipment deliverers. They also searched and seized two equipment storage warehouses and residences managed by the organization, securing 400 relay devices, 121 burner phones, 5,256 SIM chips, 848 other devices including routers (network connection equipment), and more.
A total of 19 victims were defrauded through phishing scams impersonating prosecutors using the relay devices supplied by this group, resulting in damages amounting to 1.5 billion Korean won. The police are currently tracking the remaining members of the organization, including the Chinese mastermind and smugglers based overseas.
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