Notices warning of “jeonse” frauds are attached at an apartment in this undated photo. (Yonhap)
INCHEON, May 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Home rental scammers are expected to face far heavier punishments than before, as police here have decided to apply a charge of organizing a criminal group to them for the first time.
The Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency said Wednesday it plans to transfer a group of 51 “jeonse” scam suspects to the prosecution on charges of fraud and apply the criminal group formation charge to 18 of them, including the mastermind, a 61-year-old man.
Jeonse refers to a unique Korean system in which renters give landlords a large returnable deposit instead of paying monthly rent.
But the long-term deposit rental system has recently emerged as a big social issue, due to a large number of jeonse fraud cases nationwide, in which scammers usually bought homes without many funds through a series of jeonse contracts and refused to return the deposits at the end of the lease.
The 51 suspects are accused of defrauding tenants for 533 apartments and multi-family housing units in Incheon, 27 km west of Seoul, of deposits worth 43 billion won (US$32.5 million) from March 2021 to July last year.
The police agency said it will additionally apply the charge of organizing a criminal group to the mastermind and 17 others, who reportedly acted as figurehead landlords, real estate brokers and money management agents.
This is the first time in Korea that the criminal group formation charge will be applied to jeonse scammers. The charge is usually applied to violent organized crime rings.
The statutory penalty for fraud is up to 10 years in prison and can be extended to 15 years under the aggravated punishment rule.
The application of the criminal group charge does not increase the statutory maximum sentence for the rental scammers, but all members of the group can be punished with the same penalty regardless of their roles.
(Yonhap)
