▲ South Korean online scam suspects repatriated from Cambodia arrive at a police station in the southeastern port city of Busan on Jan. 23, 2026. (Yonap)

scam suspects-arrests

Arrest warrants issued for 55 of 73 scam suspects repatriated from Cambodia

SEOUL, Jan. 26 (Yonhap) -- Police said Monday that 55 of the 73 South Korean online scam suspects repatriated from Cambodia last week have been put under arrest.

The 73 suspects were brought home Friday in the nation's largest repatriation of criminal suspects from a single country, and arrest warrants were requested for 72 of them, excluding one whose criminal charges were deemed minor. They allegedly swindled a combined 48.6 billion won (US$33.6 million) from 869 South Korean victims.

As of 9 a.m. Monday, courts nationwide had issued arrest warrants for 55 suspects, according to the Korean National Police Agency's National Office of Investigation.

Those arrested include 49 no-show scammers accused of defrauding 194 victims of 6.9 billion won by impersonating civil servants and a couple accused of swindling 12 billion won from 104 people through romance scams using deep fake technology.

The remaining 17 suspects who allegedly defrauded about 30 romance scam victims of some 5 billion won are set to attend their arrest warrant hearing in the central province of South Chungcheong on Monday afternoon, the police said.

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