Third Person Commits Suicide After Losing Her Money to Rental Scam in Incheon
This is horrible that this rental scam has caused three people to commit suicide. Hopefully no one else loses their lives over this fraud:
The woman is the third victim of a recent rental scam to have apparently taken their own life.
She had reported herself as a victim of a massive swindle case by a local builder, who was arrested in February for failing to return a combined 12.5 billion won (US$9.518 million) in rental deposits he had received for 161 apartment units in Michuhol between January and July last year.
The deceased was unable to retrieve her deposit of 90 million won after the apartment she was living in was put up for auction in June last year, according to a group of tenants who fell prey to the scam.
Two other victims also died by apparent suicide in the same ward on Feb. 28 and last Friday, respectively.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
90 Million Won is about $67,400… That’s a lot of cash for you average worker bee…There may be help on the horizon for the others:
https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20230419007900320?section=national/national
Meanwhile, if people who are scammed die as a result (suicide or other unnatural means), the scammer ought to charged under a Korean equivalent of the Felony Murder Rule, which needs to be enacted.
The problem here lies with the junsye rental system.
As per the system, the tenant, doesn’t pay a monthly rent.
Instead the tenant pays an upfront deposit which is returned to him/her by the landlord if the tenant chooses to leave after the end of the lease.
The thing is the landlords usually spends the deposit money on something else, which means if the landlord wants to return the deposit, then he/she will have to find another tenant, and after receiving the deposit from the new tenant give it to the previous tenant.
In regards to the housing units involved in the scam, it seems the landlords declared bankruptcy, meaning that they don’t have the money and thus can’t return the deposits in question.
There are also units which have been seized by creditors via court orders and have been put up for auction.
In the above case, the tenants are practically being thrown out without receiving their deposits.