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Neither murder nor robbery, fraud was the most frequent crime in Seoul. One out of five fraud crimes nationwide in the first half of this year occurred in Seoul. Over the past five years, fraud crimes in Seoul grew faster than the national average, and the ratio of arrests to reported cases fell below the national average.

According to an analysis of the National Police Agency's 'Crime Occurrence and Arrest Status in the Second Quarter of 2026' on July 27, fraud crimes in Seoul showed a steeper increase than the national average. The number of fraud crimes in Seoul in the first half of this year was 39,392, up 39.1% from 2022 (28,310). During the same period, nationwide figures grew 25.5% from 161,622 to 202,847. Consequently, Seoul's share of national fraud crimes steadily rose from 17.5% in 2022 to 19.4% this year.

Recently, large-scale fraud cases causing massive damage have occurred one after another. A jeweler in Jongno-gu, Seoul, was arrested by police and faces an arrest warrant on charges of disappearing with gold and cash entrusted by customers. So far, about 140 victims have been identified, with damages estimated at over 10 billion won.

The fake Ripple (XRP) staking site case, which lured investors with promises of "daily interest upon deposit," is another representative fraud example. Suspects are accused of deceiving investors using websites mimicking the official Ripple homepage, YouTube, blogs, and fake news articles. Police are currently investigating with reported damages reaching 7.5 billion won, estimating the actual damage could exceed 20 billion won.

The shift toward online crime is cited as a background for the sharp increase in fraud. Kwak Dae-kyung, a professor at Dongguk University's College of Police and Criminal Justice, said, "Fraud crimes are spreading to the point where South Korea is called a 'fraud republic.'" He added, "In the past, theft accounted for a large portion, but recently cyber-based frauds such as voice phishing, romance scams, and investment chatroom scams are growing rapidly." He continued, "Although police are advancing investigation techniques, criminal methods are evolving even faster. Because cyberspace guarantees anonymity and allows broad targeting of victims, the structure leads to a continuous rise in crime."

Fraud crimes in Seoul show a distinct upward trend since 2022. Based on the first half of each year, cases rose from 28,310 in 2022 to 30,309 in 2023, and surged 31.3% year-on-year to 39,802 the following year. Last year exceeded 40,000 cases for the first time at 40,797, and although it slightly decreased to 39,392 this year, it remained more than 10,000 cases higher than in 2022.

The ratio of arrests to reported cases in Seoul has been lower than the national average for the past five consecutive years. In the first half of this year, Seoul's ratio of arrests to reported cases was 50.6%, which was 8.1 percentage points lower than the national average of 58.7%. In 2022, Seoul stood at 51.7%, lower than the national average (56.0%), followed by 47.9% versus 56.2% in 2023, 49.1% versus 55.7% in 2024, and 46.4% versus 56.1% last year.

Experts analyze that the lower ratio of arrests to reported cases compared to the national average is closely tied to Seoul's characteristics. Professor Kwak said, "New fraud methods are mostly attempted first in Seoul before spreading nationwide." He added, "As new crimes concentrate here, arrests can be relatively more difficult. Since Seoul has a structure where 31 police stations split narrow jurisdictions, tracking becomes more complex if information sharing and cooperation are not smooth when cases cross multiple jurisdictions."

An investigator at a frontline police station in Seoul also noted, "Frauds occurring in Seoul involve organized crime rings rather than simple individual offenses in many cases. Even for large fraud cases reported nationwide, suspects often reside or operate in Seoul, concentrating the cases here. Particularly in Seoul, the volume of cases to handle is high, leading to a heavy investigative burden."

                                                                                                            Ji Hwan-hyuk

                                                                                                            Choi Min-jun