AGENTS of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) have arrested three South Koreans involved in phone scams. 

An operation conducted last week led to the arrest of 29-year-old Jin Unghyeon, who is wanted in Seoul for involvement in telecommunications fraud, Immigration Commissioner Jaime H. Morente said in an e-mailed statement on Monday.   

The raid on Mr. Jin’s condominium residence in Novaliches resulted in the arrest of two other South Koreans who were identified as 34-year-old Choi Sukhyun and 23-year-old Lee Seungsu. They were all caught “in the act of manning and operating their computer workstations which they used to defraud their victims through voice phishing,” Mr. Morente said.  

Voice phishing, perpetrated by people pretending to represent a trusted institution, involves the use of fraudulent phone calls to entice people to give money or reveal personal information, according to the Immigration bureau.  

Mr. Jin will be immediately sent back to South Korea “as an order for his deportation was already issued against him by the BI’s board commissioners in October last year,” Mr. Morente said.   

“His two accomplices will be expelled as well after they are charged with violation of immigration law and undergo deportation proceedings,” he said.    

“Their names will then be included in our blacklist to prevent them from re-entering the country.”  

Mr. Jin’s “cohorts are overstaying aliens as examination of their passports showed that their tourist visas have already expired,” BI said, citing a report by the bureau’s fugitive search unit.   

Mr. Jin, who was “a subject” of a so-called interpol red notice released after a Philippine court issued an arrest warrant against him in Oct. 2019, is “subject of an outstanding arrest warrant issued by the Suwon district court in Korea after he was indicted for being an alleged member of a syndicate that swindled their compatriots of over $US840 million since they ran their voice phishing racket in Jan. 2017,” the Immigration bureau said. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza