The agency said Tuesday that 1,309 attempted fire-agency impersonation scams were identified nationwide over the past year. Of those, 161 businesses suffered financial losses totaling about 2.95 billion won, nearing 3 billion won.
The tactics have grown more sophisticated. What once centered on simple requests to buy items on someone else’s behalf has evolved into coercive sales pitches that exploit owners’ fears of administrative penalties.
In one scheme, scammers pose as senior fire station officials and call gas stations or factories, warning that a scheduled inspection will result in heavy fines if lithium-ion fire extinguishers are not on site. They then send fake guidance messages steering targets to buy from specific vendors, taking tens of millions of won.
A separate “no-show” scam also persists: criminals send forged official documents using a fire station’s name to hardware stores, request proxy purchases of items such as first-aid kits or ladders, take the money and disappear.
The agency stressed that fire authorities do not recommend or broker purchases of firefighting equipment by phone or text under any circumstances. It also said it never instructs private businesses to buy items on its behalf or asks for transfers to personal bank accounts.
“Any case that mentions fire inspections or fines while forcing a purchase or requesting a proxy purchase is 100% a scam,” the agency said, urging people to end suspicious calls immediately and report them to 119 or 112.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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