Police in South Korea bust illegal gambling group targeting deaf people

• Close to 200 suspects were detained in a massive illegal gambling scheme that targeted impaired people
• Suspects involved in the operation of a gambling website used accounts belonging to deaf people, who were misled the use would better their credit score
• One person, who worked as an interpreter for impaired people, allegedly sold credentials to a third party that engaged in online gambling

A criminal group, involved in the use of accounts belonging to impaired people for gambling purposes was taken down by law enforcement in South Korea.

Nearly 200 people suspected of being involved in the process were arrested, police said Monday.

Illegal gambling website was worth $3.6m, police say

As announced by the local media outlet, The Chosun Daily, the arrests follow an operation of the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency’s Metropolitan Crime Investigation Unit.

Officers with the unit looked into a group of suspects that allegedly operated an illegal gambling website worth 5.3bn won, or $3.6m, between January and May 2024.

Interestingly, the criminal group used a server based on the United States, but they had established field operations office located in Nam-gu, Busan.

This investigation resulted in the arrest of 55 suspects.

Of that total, 52 were described as habitual gamblers, while the remaining three were allegedly involved in the operation of the illegal gambling website.

Notably, several of the habitual gamblers allegedly wagered 320m won ($219,000).

Subsequent analysis of the wagers and activities of the habitual gamblers uncovered that they never gambled, and many of them were deaf.

Law enforcement discovered that those people’s credentials were used for mule accounts.

Police tracked one person, suspected of being in charge of the delivery of mule accounts, who had ties to a community of deaf people.

The man, who was in his 40s, identified as Mr. A, collected approximately 90 accounts belonging to deaf people with whom he communicated as an interpreter.

Consequently, Mr. A sold the accounts information to a second person in the organization, described as Mr. B, who then used the credentials for gambling.

In exchange for giving out their account information, the impaired people received 200,000 won ($137) and they were misled that their accounts would be used for activities that would boost their credit score.

A police official acknowledged that the latest case represents a crime against hearing impaired people who were lied to and manipulated.

The same officer vowed that law enforcement will continue to combat any organization that breaches the established laws or targets vulnerable individuals.

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