A lawyer identified as A, a former prosecutor, recently could not believe what he heard from his client B, a fraud victim. "I hired a private investigator and found out the fraudster is currently being held in a detention center, then informed the police," the client said. After filing a fraud complaint with police and seeing no progress on the whereabouts of the perpetrator or the investigation, the victim had sought a solution on his own.
"With the flood of cases pushing prosecutors and police to their limits, we are now seeing absurd cases where victims turn to private investigators to locate suspects," lawyer A said. "I understand the urgency victims feel to recover from fraud damages, but it is hard to understand that (B) did not even consider that he himself might be violating current law."
Ahead of the launch of a new criminal justice system in October, advertisements from so-called "heungsinso," or private investigation agencies, are mushrooming on Telegram open chat rooms. This is interpreted as a phenomenon emerging as investigation delays by prosecutors and police become routine. Experts warn that victims seeking to recover from fraud and other damages through private investigators may instead become entangled in possible illegal activities.
According to reporting by Seoul Economic Daily as of the 10th, advertisements for private investigation agencies are flooding open chat rooms on Telegram, the foreign messenger often cited as a hotbed of crime. These ads carry slogans such as "We will find and resolve it to the ends of the earth" or "We can handle divorce lawsuits and evidence collection." Notably, some illegal ads openly state that "various documents can be forged or altered." They lure users by claiming they can fabricate, composite or forge tax invoices, bank transfer records, loan documents, ID cards and even driver's licenses.
A legal industry source familiar with law enforcement circumstances pointed out, "Following successive changes to the investigation system, the workload for police has long been excessive as a matter of routine, with cases concentrating on a handful of investigators with experience." The source added, "Investigative personnel are being increased, but in the field there are many investigators with only one to two years of experience, making it difficult to speed up investigations." He continued, "For the prosecution, with the launch of various special prosecutors and the resignation of prosecutors, unresolved cases per prosecutor have reached hundreds. Both the police and prosecution are so preoccupied with handling cases currently in front of them that they are in no position to look into each case properly."
According to the Korean National Police Agency, the number of cases per police officer (based on filings) last year stood at 133.8, a 32.7% surge over the past four years. For the prosecution, as of March this year, the number of suspects in unresolved cases reached 188,625, increasing by more than 30,000 in just three months from 157,558 at the end of last year. In particular, the number of suspects in unresolved livelihood-related cases such as fraud reached 40,843, soaring by about 6,000 from 34,586 at the end of last year. As the vicious cycle of "surging case volumes leading to investigation delays" repeats itself, victims with nowhere to turn for damage recovery naturally end up seeking out private investigators.
Another legal industry source said, "Since a detective law has not been enacted, the activities of private investigation agencies cannot be called 100% illegal, but there is a possibility that some engage in illegal acts such as paying for personal information." He added, "Victims, given the urgency of their situations, do not even consider that illegal acts may occur in the process of gathering evidence." He continued, "Document forgery is 100% illegal. With the development of technology, investigative agencies and courts have now reached a laughable situation where they must even examine whether evidence itself has been forged, altered or composited."
