Justice Ministry officials on the 22nd conduct the forced repatriation, through Incheon International Airport, of a Chinese national surnamed Jeon, a ringleader-level criminal of a hacking organization that embezzled large sums by stealing the identities of wealthy South Koreans, including BTS member Jungkook. Provided by the Justice Ministry
The leader of a hacking ring who stole a total of 38 billion won ($27 million) by illegally activating mobile phones under the stolen identities of wealthy Koreans — including BTS member Jung Kook and a conglomerate chairman — received a heavy sentence in a lower court.
The Seoul Central District Court’s Criminal Settlement Division 31, presided over by Chief Judge Park Jun-seok, sentenced a Chinese national surnamed Jeon to 20 years in prison on the 20th on charges including fraud under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Economic Crimes and violation of the Information and Communications Network Act. The court ruled that Jeon “sought out wealthy people as targets and seized their assets,” adding that “unlike ordinary voice phishing, the victims lost their assets while defenseless and without any fault of their own.”
Jeon is accused of building a hacking crime organization overseas, including in Thailand, and then illegally collecting victims’ personal information from August 2023 to January last year. He allegedly seized about 38 billion won by activating budget mobile phone lines under the victims’ names without authorization and accessing their financial accounts.
Over several years, the group hacked domestic online services and other sources to build a database of sensitive information such as resident registration numbers and passwords. It then targeted security vulnerabilities at six websites — including poorly secured government and public agencies, information technology (IT) platform companies and joint financial management institutions — to steal names, ID information, driver’s license details, account numbers, financial asset balances and phone numbers of 258 victims, using this personal, financial and authentication data to select its targets.
The organization first selected wealthy individuals with large assets as primary targets. It then chose secondary targets who would find it difficult to respond quickly to unauthorized phone activations — such as a company chairman held in a correctional facility, celebrities and athletes who were abroad or serving in the military, and cryptocurrency investors.
Jeon’s victims reportedly included famous entertainers such as BTS member Jung Kook and the head of a company ranked among the top 30 conglomerates. The victims were identified as eight company chairmen, CEOs and presidents, one executive, three entertainers and influencers, and three cryptocurrency investors.
Jung Kook nearly had 8.4 billion won worth of HYBE shares stolen, but no actual loss occurred because his agency immediately took measures such as suspending payments after recognizing the theft.
The group exploited an authentication vulnerability that allowed the electronic signature of a third party — rather than the account holder — to be used, hacking the activation service of budget mobile carriers and activating SIM cards under the victims’ names without authorization. In the process, they also hacked an information and communications technology (ICT) outsourcing agency to remove a “phone subscription restriction service” without authorization.
They also used the illegally collected personal and financial information, together with the identity verification data from the unauthorized phones, to hack state-owned enterprises and other targets and steal passwords. Through this, they looked up identity information and obtained additional means of authentication, including issuing and forging resident registration and driver’s license verification services, issuing joint certificates, obtaining i-PIN identifiers and opening new accounts.
Using the authentication tools they secured, the group stole money by withdrawing funds from cryptocurrency accounts and other holdings.
Through an international cooperative investigation, police obtained Interpol intelligence last May that Jeon was staying in Thailand. They then conducted a joint operation with Thai police and Interpol and arrested Jeon, who had been using a hotel in Bangkok as a hideout to carry out crimes. Jeon was repatriated to Korea in August of the same year and indicted while in detention in September.
Click Here For The Original Source.
