 |
| A press conference criticizing the government's Jeonse fraud bill is being held in front of the National Assembly, organized by the National Response Committee for Victims of Jeonse Fraud, April 28. Yonhap |
A victim of "jeonse" fraud has been found dead in western Seoul, police said Thursday.
The body of the victim, known to be a woman in her 30s surnamed Lee, was found at her home in the Yangcheon district Monday, police said, noting signs of suicide have not been found.
Police have asked the National Forensic Service to conduct an autopsy to find the exact cause of her death.
Lee had reportedly been defrauded out of her jeonse deposit worth 300 million won ($227,000) by a notorious rental scammer, who had owned 1,139 multi-family housing units in western Seoul but died last October without paying deposits to their tenants.
Lee reportedly signed her jeonse contract with the scammer, surnamed Kim, in June last year. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency has been investigating Kim's accomplices.
Jeonse refers to a unique Korean system in which renters give landlords a large returnable deposit instead of paying monthly rent. Her death came amid growing social resentment about a large number of jeonse fraud cases nationwide, in which scammers usually bought homes without much money through a series of jeonse contracts and refused to return the deposits at the end of the lease.
In recent months, three cash-strapped victims of jeonse frauds took their own lives in Incheon, 27 kilometers west of Seoul. (Yonhap)
![[INTERVIEW] Virtual K-pop group MAVE: is more than just pretty pixels](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/bcc387606cf7451c94f51a5978960c9f.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
![[INTERVIEW] 'Cobweb' director questions meaning of cinema](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/a029c9ea411f4aef94c6310f6a7c3c54.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
![[INTERVIEW] Seoul's increased art market momentum brings Sotheby's back to Korea](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/3439cc1e2d744b85ab81fdcf6f045ba5.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
