Original phones had been deemed 'unusable'
Police sergeant Jeong Do-yeon bought a used Samsung Anycall mobile phone in November. But he always heard a lot of static and had far more dropped calls than he had anticipated. He took the phone to Samsung Electronics' repair office for a look. What the repair man told him came as a shock: He had been sold a phone that had a newer casing but in fact contained the hardware for a phone that had long been discarded as unusable. Police at Seoul's Hyehwa Police Station said Thursday that they had arrested 14 people on charges they "re-imported" discarded Korean phones sent to China, reconstructed them, and then priced them to move, without disclosing their origin. According to police officials, the group has bought close to 20,000 used Samsung, LG, and Motorola phones from China and distributed them through Internet commerce sites after manipulating their settings in a warehouse located in Seoul's Banghwa-dong. They allegedly made close to 1.1 billion won (US$1.2 million) and are being charged with fraud and communications law violations. "Legal and complete products are designed to protect the user from harmful electric waves," said one official. "Phones that are put together using [non-regulation] casings lack this protective material."Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
