Bumping Young Adults with a Broken Smartphone... Man in His 20s Sentenced to Prison for Extorting Tens of Millions of Won

Extorted Repair Fees, Telling Victims "Don't Make This a Big Deal"
Sentenced to 1 Year and 6 Months in Prison for Fraud and Stalking

A man in his 20s was sentenced to one year and six months in prison after extorting tens of millions of won by deliberately bumping into people—mainly young adults new to society—while carrying a smartphone that was already broken, and then demanding repair costs.

Mobile phone with a cracked screen. The Asia Business Daily DB

According to a Yonhap News report on August 23, Judge Park Dongwook of the Chuncheon District Court’s Single Criminal Division 3 sentenced Mr. A (age 21), who was indicted and detained on charges of fraud, attempted fraud, violation of the Act on Punishment of Stalking, and assault, to one year and six months in prison. The court also ordered him to complete 40 hours of a stalking treatment program and pay a total of 820,000 won in restitution.

From September last year to January this year, Mr. A deliberately collided with people in such places as Chuncheon, areas near universities in Hongcheon, and bus terminals, then demanded smartphone repair fees, receiving a total of around 7.9 million won from 11 victims. He was also accused of attempting but failing to swindle money from three additional people.

Investigations revealed that Mr. A targeted soldiers, students, and other young people just starting their careers in busy pedestrian areas. He intentionally bumped shoulders with them, dropped his smartphone—which already had a cracked screen—and demanded compensation.

In February this year, using the same method, he told victims, "I won't report you to the police, just give me the repair fee," "Don't make this a big deal," and "Don't tell your parents—if you do, you'll go to jail," and extorted a total of approximately 41 million won through 35 incidents.

Additionally, according to the prosecutor's indictment, even though his ex-girlfriend had asked him not to contact or visit her, he contacted her 189 times over the course of a week in October last year, transferred money to her account with messages 53 times over four days, and approached her near her home.

On October 9 last year, as a result of this stalking, the police issued an emergency restraining order prohibiting him from approaching within 100 meters or contacting her via telecommunications. However, just seven hours after the order, he sent her multiple additional messages.

He also extorted approximately 18.8 million won from another girlfriend for supposed car repair costs over 13 separate occasions, using the funds for gambling and other purposes.

Judge Park stated, "Given the circumstances and nature of the crimes, these are serious offenses; the total amount stolen is around 68 million won." The judge further noted, "Except for some partial restitution, the remaining damages amount to about 55 million won, and agreement with some of the victims was not reached."

He continued, "After committing these crimes, the defendant was uncooperative with the investigators, lied about his whereabouts, and has a prior criminal record for fraud that resulted in a fine. These points were taken into account in determining the sentence."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.