Korea shows strength of middle powers in addressing cybercrime

Earlier this month, South Korean prosecutors indicted nine men accused of working for a romance scam ring based in Myanmar. These individuals were involved in voice phishing — a tactic used to manipulate victims into revealing sensitive information, such as passwords and banking accounts — and scammed vulnerable Korean citizens of sums between 70 million and 1.4 billion won ($47,000 to $943,000). While these stories were once outlier occurrences, the past few years have seen a ballooning of scam incidents across Asia, with South Koreans emerging as one of the target groups. The threat to Korean citizens from this activity is mutlifaceted. The economic impact is clear, with one scam group reportedly defrauding 869 citizens of about 48.6 billion won. As these groups continue to achieve success, there is further demand for criminal actors who understand the language and culture of South Korea, which, in turn, has resulted in citizens being trafficked to scam compounds through Southeast Asia. Recent reports suggest that at least 1,000 South Korean citizens have been abducted, trafficke

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