21 Caught in Insurance Fraud Ring for Deliberately Causing 43 "Crashes" with Rental Cars, Pocketing 320 Million Won

Recruited local acquaintances to conspire in fraud
Collected insurance payouts under the guise of settlement payments
All suspects involved were apprehended

A group of people who deliberately caused traffic accidents using rental cars and collected hundreds of millions of won in insurance payouts has been apprehended by police.

A suspect is seen deliberately causing a traffic accident involving a vehicle changing lanes. Seoul Gwangjin Police Station.

Seoul Gwangjin Police Station said on Nov. 9 that it had referred 21 people, including a man in his 20s identified as A, to the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office without detention on suspicion of insurance fraud under the Insurance Fraud Prevention Act.

According to police, A and the others are suspected of conspiring to commit insurance fraud, causing collisions on 43 occasions and swindling insurance companies out of about 320 million won in settlement payments.

From January 2024 through November 2025, A and the others used rental cars insured under policies with no deductible. They deliberately caused collisions, targeting only vehicles that violated traffic laws, such as by running a red light or changing lanes from a left-turn lane. They then complained of pain and falsely claimed to be hospitalized, even though the accidents were minor and required no treatment. Using this method, they collected insurance payouts in the form of settlement payments from nine non-life insurance companies.

Police received information about the case from the affected insurers. After months of gathering witness statements and analyzing footage from the accident scenes, they uncovered the scheme. Investigators found that A and the others were senior-junior acquaintances who lived in the same neighborhood.

A police official said, "Automobile insurance fraud is a serious crime that creates unjustly victimized drivers and increases social costs." The official added, "We plan to actively crack down on automobile insurance fraud and take remedial measures to ensure that insurers can defer premium surcharges for drivers of vehicles that have been unfairly victimized."

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