Our son was arrested in Korea as part of a "phishing ring" and is in a detention center — we're in the US. How does this work, and what can parents actually do?

Your son is in the most serious phase of a Korean criminal case — detained, in an organized-fraud investigation — and the road ahead is measured in months, with a trial at the end of it. The honest picture includes this: Korean courts treat voice-phishing organizations severely, and the people arrested in the apartment will be prosecuted as members of that organization. It also includes this: sentences within a group are individualized, "joined a company and understood later" is a recognized position in these cases, and the evidence for it — the recruitment messages, his role, his pay, when he tried to leave — is what separates a low-level participant from an organizer. You can retain counsel for him from the US today; you can visit and support him; and what his lawyer does in the next thirty days matters more than the trial.

What this is under Korean law

Operating a voice-phishing call center is prosecuted as fraud (사기, sagi) under Article 347 of the Criminal Act and, since the Act on Prevention of Telecommunications-based Financial Fraud (통신사기피해환급법) was strengthened, under its own offense of telecommunications financial fraud, carrying up to ten years' imprisonment or a fine of up to KRW 100 million. Where the police treat the operation as a criminal organization, participation in a criminal group (범죄단체 조직·가입·활동, beomjoe danche) under Article 114 is added, which allows each member to be held responsible for the group's activities. That charge is why the amount of loss across all victims, not just calls he handled, can be attributed to him — and why the defense's first task is to define his role narrowly and prove when he learned what the operation was.

How the process works in Korea

A detention warrant (구속영장, gusok yeongjang) was issued at the hearing you did not know about; that hearing happens within a day or two of arrest, which is why families abroad so often miss it. Police may hold him up to ten days, the prosecutor a further ten, extendable once — so up to thirty days of investigation in custody before indictment. After indictment, detention may continue for up to six months at first instance while the trial proceeds; group cases with many defendants tend to use much of that. The first-instance judgment comes at the end; appeals follow.

Bail (보석, boseok) exists in Korea but is granted sparingly in organized fraud cases; a well-supported application after indictment, with a fixed address and a guarantor, is worth making, not counting on.

His situation as a foreign national

He is entitled to an interpreter at every stage and to consular access, which you have already used. Under Article 30 of the Criminal Procedure Act (형사소송법), parents may appoint defense counsel independently, without his signature; retained counsel replaces or works alongside the court-appointed lawyer. Retained counsel can visit him at the detention center (접견, jeopgyeon) without the frequency limits that apply to family, review the police file as it becomes available, and represent him at every interview — which the court-appointed lawyer, who has met him once, is not doing.

Family visits at Korean detention centers are permitted on a schedule, with limits on frequency and duration; you can deposit money to his account there for purchases; letters are permitted and are read. Counsel arranges the practical side.

If convicted, a foreign national is removed from Korea after serving any sentence, with an entry ban; that is decided by the Immigration Office and is for later.

What to do now, and what not to do

Retain counsel now. Then, with his consent, give counsel access to everything: the job advertisement, the recruitment chats, his contract or "offer," his pay records, the apartment arrangements, messages to friends or to you expressing doubt or fear, and any attempt he made to leave. Do not contact anyone else connected to the "company." Do not send money to anyone claiming to be able to help from inside. Plan a visit for after counsel has reviewed the file, so that your time in Seoul is spent on him, not on finding a lawyer.

From a former police investigator's perspective

In call-center cases, police organize the arrested by role — recruiter, manager, operator, English-line staff — from the seized devices and the group's own records, which are usually meticulous. What they are asking about each operator is: when did he join, what was he paid, did he handle victims directly, did he recruit others, and when did he know. A twenty-five-year-old who answered an English "customer service" ad, was paid a modest salary, handled no Korean victims, and messaged a friend "I think this is a scam, I want out" three months before the raid is a defendant a court sentences at the bottom of the group. That message must reach his lawyer before the police characterize him from the group's records alone.

We take instructions from families abroad in detained cases and can be at the detention center this week — +82-2-522-3959 or the text consultation form.

— Hyeonghwan Chon, Managing Partner, MEGA X Law Firm Korea