The majority of financial frauds these days are cryptocurrency scams, with methods becoming more decentralized and sophisticated.
With cryptocurrency fraud linked as a motive for the Gangnam kidnapping and murder case, fraud crimes involving virtual assets have once again come under scrutiny. Although statistics from last year show a decrease in virtual asset-related crimes, cryptocurrency fraud continues to be rampant. On the ground, experts believe that many crimes remain hidden as criminal tactics become more sophisticated and operate in fragmented networks.
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As the complexity of cryptocurrency-related fraud increases, front-line police are struggling with investigations. The lack of highly specialized investigators with deep knowledge of blockchain and virtual assets, such as lock-ups and staking, means it can take days just to identify initial cases. As a result, while ordinary financial crimes are typically handled by the economic crimes team, cryptocurrency fraud is increasingly being transferred to the intelligent crime investigation team.
Hyeonsu “Elliot” Jin, an attorney at Decent Law Firm, commented, "Recently, cryptocurrency fraud has become more complex, often combined with stock-leading room scams, making it difficult even for local police stations to manage. Cryptocurrency fraud is occurring at an alarming rate. From my experience, it would not be an exaggeration to say that about half of the financial fraud cases currently happening involve cryptocurrency."
