- Gyeonggi Bukbu police's Phishing Team 1 arrested 89 people, including Korean ringleaders, in a Cambodia-based romance scam ring, Financial News reported on 29 October 2026.
- The ring took about 10.8 billion won from 243 victims between April 2024 and September 2025.
- Twenty-five of the 89 were taken into custody.
- The case surfaced in a police awards round: 15 cases, 50 million won in bonuses.
South Korean police arrested 89 people, including Korean ringleaders, in a Cambodia-based romance scam ring that took about 10.8 billion won from 243 victims, according to an announcement by the Korean National Police Agency's National Office of Investigation, as reported by Financial News on 29 October 2026. The ring operated between April 2024 and September 2025.
This is not a fresh raid. The arrests were made earlier, and the dates are not given. The case came out as one of 15 cited in an awards round covering January to August, with 50 million won in bonuses. Phishing Team 1 and the Sejong Police Agency's Violent and Drug Crime Investigation Unit received top honours, with 7 million won each.
The DII Take
Romance fraud is a trust and safety problem for every dating operator, whether or not it starts on their platform. The reports name no dating app and do not say how victims were approached, so operators have little to go on when judging whether their own products were used. Scale matters too: 89 arrests linked to 243 victims points to an organised operation rather than lone actors.
What the reports do and do not say
Segye Ilbo says the 243 victims were Korean, and that the overseas base made the investigation difficult. The reports do not say how victims were approached or what the charges are.
Phishing Team 1 arrested 89 people, including Korean ringleaders, and 25 of them were taken into custody, according to Financial News.
Phishing Team 1 arrested 89 people, including Korean ringleaders, and 25 of them were taken into custody, according to Financial News.
Wider context and what to watch
The KNPA says 9,333 voice-phishing cases were reported from January to September 2026, down 50.2% from 18,746 a year earlier, with losses down from 986.7 billion won to 419.6 billion won. That covers voice phishing, not romance scams specifically. The same awards list includes the arrest of 65 members of an investment-scam ring suspected of taking about 26.9 billion won from 133 victims, and the arrest of 84 members of a money-laundering and no-show scam ring in Phnom Penh.
JURIST reported in January 2026 that 73 South Koreans accused of running Cambodian scams were returned to South Korea. DII earlier covered a separate Thai and Korean arrest of 10 people. Watch for charges, trial outcomes and any disclosure of how victims were first contacted.
- Korean police credit Phishing Team 1 with 89 arrests in a romance scam ring, yet no dating platform is named in the reports, leaving operators with little to assess their own exposure.
- Cambodia-based fraud networks keep drawing Korean enforcement, with other cases in the same awards list involving ring members arrested in Phnom Penh.
- Watch for charge details and the method of victim contact, which would show whether dating products were involved.
Sources: Romance scam ring that swindled 10.8 billion won busted; police reward 15 outstanding cases (Financial News, English edition); 108억 가로챈 로맨스스캠 조직 검거…경찰, 우수사례 15건 포상 (Financial News); Police Select 15 Best Cases for Catching Overseas Phishing Rings and Preventing Fraud, Awarding 50 Million Won in Prizes (SBS News English); 캄보디아 거점 로맨스스캠 조직 89명, 투자사기 조직 65명 검거 (Segye Ilbo); South Koreans allegedly involved in scam operations sent home from Cambodia for investigation (JURIST)