Stopped at Incheon Airport on my way out over "unauthorized card use" — I'm a tourist and I have no idea what they mean. What is happening?

Yes, they can stop you from leaving on a report, and what you experienced has a name: a departure suspension (출국정지, chulguk jeongji) requested by police and imposed by the Immigration Office on a person under investigation. It is a formal, time-limited measure, not a permanent hold, and it is lifted when the investigation no longer needs you here — which, on your account, could be soon. The crime is unauthorized use of a payment card, and the two facts you volunteered — the lost wallet and the friend's card — are the two threads the police are pulling. Go tomorrow, but not alone, and not with a translation app.

What this is under Korean law

Using someone else's card without authority is charged in Korea under two provisions, depending on how the card was used: at a store with a physical card, as fraud (사기, sagi) under Article 347 of the Criminal Act, and often also as a violation of the Specialized Credit Financial Business Act (여신전문금융업법, yeosin jeonmun geumyung-eop-beop), which specifically penalizes use of a lost, stolen or forged card; online or at a terminal without a person, as computer fraud (컴퓨터등사용사기) under Article 347-2. Penalties run to several years' imprisonment, with fines common in small first-offense cases.

A card reported lost by its holder and then used at stores is the classic pattern behind a report like yours. If someone took your wallet for a day and returned it, your own cards may have been used; if the report concerns a card in someone else's name, the police have transactions with your face on store CCTV, or your other cards used alongside it. Your friend's card, used with his permission, is not a crime — but "with his permission" is something the police will want from him, not from you.

How the process works in Korea

The summons is for a suspect interview. Police will show you transactions and footage and ask you to account for each. They then refer the case to the prosecutor (송치, songchi) or close it (불송치, bulsongchi). Small card cases with a plausible explanation and cooperation frequently close; ones where the suspect leaves the country mid-investigation become suspended files with a warrant attached, and the departure suspension exists precisely to prevent that.

Your situation as a foreign national

Three rights, and use all of them. An interpreter (통역, tongyeok) at the interview — a real one, which you are entitled to and which the station must provide; refuse to proceed with an app. Consular notification under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention if you are detained; the embassy can confirm your treatment but does not represent you. And counsel present at the interview; you can appoint a lawyer today, and a lawyer can contact the station tonight to learn what the report actually says before you walk in.

On the departure suspension: it is imposed for a set period and can be extended, but it is lifted on application when the police confirm they no longer require your presence — typically once your statement is complete, the friend has confirmed the permission, and, if any transaction is disputed, you have a lawyer on record to receive documents. That is the path to a flight. It is not "wait in the hotel."

What to do now, and what not to do

Tonight: write down every card you carried, every card you used and where, the dates you lost and recovered the wallet, and your friend's name and contact; message your friend and ask him to confirm to your lawyer, in writing, the two uses and the permission. Pull your own card statements for the ten days — they show where your cards were, which is evidence for you. Do not post about the airport. Do not go to any of the stores.

Tomorrow: attend with counsel and an interpreter. Prepare your account with your lawyer before, and give it once, precisely. If a transaction shown is one you did not make, say so; do not guess.

From a former police investigator's perspective

Airport stops on card reports are usually triggered by a match — a card holder's loss report, store CCTV, and a passport control flag. The investigator is deciding whether the foreign traveler is the person in the footage and whether the transactions were authorized. A traveler with his own statements showing his cards active at the same stores at the same times, and a friend confirming permission, gives the officer a file that closes in a week. A traveler who fumbles through an app, contradicts himself, and then argues about the flight is a file that stays open. The lost-wallet day is the question they will return to; answer it with dates, not adjectives.

We can reach the station before your interview. Text consultation or +82-2-522-3959 — tonight, if you can.

— MEGA X Law Firm Korea, Criminal Defense Team