26 cases of fraud impersonating Cheongju City Hall employees... Male victim in his 70s who brought a contract

“I’m here to sign a contract.”

On March 13th, Mr. A, a man in his 70s, came to the accounting department of Cheongju City Hall holding a contract.

Supervisor B, who works in the accounting department, could not understand what Mr. A's contract request meant. This is because he had never made any contractual promises.

The situation was resolved only after exchanging a few words.

Someone impersonated B and approached Mr. A, and Mr. A urgently purchased fire extinguishing supplies on credit from another company due to the disaster situation. He was deceived by the promise that he would repay the price through a supply contract with Cheongju City, and transferred 70 million won to an unfamiliar account.

Person A followed the instructions of Officer B and immediately reported it to the police.

However, the investigation is at a standstill as the fraudster disappears without leaving a trace. The bank account to which the money was transferred was also a cannon account.

Cheongju City self-counted a total of 26 cases of employee impersonation from July of last year to this month.

The accounting department that deals with contracts had the most cases, with 8 cases.

Other departments are no exception.

Even employees of town/myeon/dong administrative welfare centers were targeted for impersonation.

Last July, there was a case in which a person impersonated an employee of the Osong-eup Administrative Welfare Center and requested the purchase and remittance of portable fire extinguishing equipment worth 50 million won.

As impersonation continued, Cheongju City opened a bulletin board titled 'Beware of impersonating public officials' in the 'City Hall Information' section of its website starting last month and also disclosed specific cases.

When a complainant calls the city hall, a voice guidance message is also played: ‘Beware of impersonating an employee.’

A city official said on the 16th, "Under no circumstances will government offices request personal transactions, proxy purchases, or advance payments outside of official procedures," and asked, "Please check directly with the official contact information in the city hall organization chart, not with the number provided by the other party."