by REERA YOO | @reeraboo
editor@charactermedia.com
Staging car accidents seem to the latest scam trend in South Korea, according to the Korea Observer.
Many Korean con artists have been extorting thousands of dollars by running towards stationary or slow-moving cars and pretending to be injured from a supposed car collision. These scammers usually target individuals who could be perceived as incompetent drivers by the police. That includes drivers who seem to be not paying attention to the road, traffic violators, student drivers, truck drivers and women.
Sophisticated scammers tend to work in teams, with one individual acting as the “victim” and other members serving as false witnesses. This setup usually forces the targeted driver to pay the con artist in order to avoid legal action.
According to the Korea Observer, one con group that was arrested in Cheongju earned about 541.45 million won (USD $491,095) from 81 staged crashes. That’s about 6.7 million won, or $6,077, per fraud.
Below is a compilation of car crash scammers caught on dashboard cameras:
There is one fraudster who actually got run over by a car during his con. In the video below, you can see the scammer pretending to fall in front of a car driven by a Korean woman, who was checking for oncoming traffic as she was turning left. Oblivious to the scammer lying on the ground in front of her, the woman accidentally drives over him. She continues to drive on, believing that the man underneath her car is a speed bump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TJKwwmyK00#t=26
Those found guilty of staging these accidents can face up to seven years in prison or a 15 million won fine.
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