Police have arrested a 64-year-old man on charges of defrauding lonely older women out of more than ₩500,000,000, (USD $474,000). The man, described as Mr. Choi in police reports, is accused of seducing older women in order to get access to their money, money which he then spent freely at a casino in the northern province of Gangwon-do.
Netizens were quick to condemn Choi’s “gigolo fraud”, but some also criticized the older women for their lack of caution and shameful behavior after their husbands died.
Article from Chosun:
Single Elderly Women Seduced and Taken for $500,000 by Senior Casanova
It’s a lonely life we live now, so let’s start relying on each other.” With these short words, elderly womanizer Mr. Choi (64) melted the hearts of elderly women. He has seduced at least 7 women, the majority of them newly widowed women in their 60s and 70s. On December 23, the Song-pa District Police Office announced, “Mr. Choi is in custody on the suspicion of swindling up to ₩500,000,000 from lonely women, after selecting and charming them during a period from 2008 until the present.”
According to the Seoul District Police Agency and Song-pa office, Mr. Choi operated not only in Seoul, but in Hanam and Hwaseong in Gyeonggi-do as well as Taebaek in Gangwon-do, in addition to other locations. They say he committed “gigolo fraud”, using the entire nation as his arena, stealing hundreds of millions of won from each victim before disappearing. In October 2009, he approached a 72 year-old woman, “Mrs. A”, drinking by herself at a snack stall in Seoul’s Song-pa district. He won her over with comments like: “Let’s look after each other in our golden years”, “It would be best for your children”, and “You need someone next to you who can take care of your affairs.” After gaining their confidence, there was no resistance. Mr. Choi said he “really didn’t have any place to go” so Mrs. A took him in. She took out a loan of ₩270 million to put down on a new apartment under her name. Choi then ran off with the ₩240 million and cut off all contact with her.
The results of the police investigation revealed that Mr. Choi squandered the majority of this money at the Jeongseon Casino in Gangwon-do. After wasting all the money he took from one woman, usually on gambling and frivolous spending, he’d move onto his next crime by finding a new woman to prey upon.
As the number of senior citizens living alone approaches 1,250,000, such scams targeting the “lonely elderly” are on the rise. According to the police, in the past three years, the number of victims over the age of 60 of these crimes of fraud have been on an upward trend: In 2011 there were 12,356 victims; in 2012, 13,083; and between January and October of 2013 there have been 12,210 victims. The police explained that situations like those of Mr. Choi luring others and scamming them is an unusual occurrence, with voice-phishing and health food scams being more frequent.
Mr. Choi, who has served four sentences in prison for fraud, stands a mere 165cm and would not typically be called handsome. But he flaunted his vigorous appearance and smooth talking, according to his female victims. Mr. Choi usually gained the favor of his victims by telling them that he managed a distribution company. Whenever Mr. Choi, who has no particular residence, needed something he would just call on his women randomly. The police were able to ascertain Choi’s location after he rented a car from a business in Seoul’s Jungnang district. He was quickly arrested on December 3rd, at a motel in Hanam, Gyeonggi-do, after a police stakeout.
During the investigation, Mr. Choi remained dignified. He admitted to blowing through all the money at the casino, but he denied the charges against him, insisting, “Yeah, I was freeloading a bit from the women, but it wasn’t robbery.” During the cross-examination with one of the victims, Mr. Choi shouted: “You %#@*! What did I ever do?” Police involved in the case said “The number of victims is large and Mr. Choi has yet to express any sign of remorse over using these women and playing on their emotions. He has now been imprisoned.”
Ryu Seung-ryong played a silver-haired Casanova in the 2012 hit “All About My Wife”
Comments from Naver:
mink****:
You should not leech off single grannies… They need money to support themselves… Please strongly punish the man who stole five hundred million won from innocent grannies!!
ssj3****:
Con artists are all shameless. They are eloquent speakers who predict what’s going to happen next. They say con artists will be more active. Punishment on them should be strengthened.
amor****:
Con artists spread like poison ivy because even if they get caught, they can pay off the fines and reach an agreement with their victims. Even if they don’t have enough money to pay, they can do their short jail time and come back to society. We have to round them up and punish them harshly. Their jail time should be at least 7 years….
iamk****:
Kill all con artists.
cosm****:
The deceased husbands might have worked all their life to leave the fortune for the grannies. But they ended up devoting their body and money to such a gigolo.
ehdh****:
Whoa………….what a bastard.
seao****:
He will be born as a dog in his next life. Congratulations.
hear****:
Is Ilbe meme everywhere these days? Ke ke ke ke ke ke ke. Even on this irrlevant article, why are they bullshitting like “Oomi Sir” [refering to Kim Dae-jung] or “Jeolladian”? Ke ke ke ke ke ke ke ke ke ke. These bastards should also go taste rice with beans [be sent to jail], ke ke ke ke ke ke ke.
bada****:
It is awesome for a 72-year-old granny to drink soju alone at a cart bar…..
dyn2****:
You think people change? No.. People forget that hoodlums also get old. We caught an infamous thief who was a 70-year-old granny in our neighborhood.
