South Korean police have uncovered a disturbing criminal scheme where a 'private revenge' organization uses cryptocurrency to pay for acts of vandalism and intimidation, including spreading human waste. According to a report from Hankyoreh, the group operates via the Telegram messaging app, where clients order harassment services and pay operatives between 500,000 and 1,000,000 South Korean won (approximately $337 to $675) in cryptocurrency.
In the latest incidents, two operatives identified as "Mr. Lim" and "Mr. K" were arrested and charged within the past week. Their crimes, which occurred in the Suwon District outside Seoul, involved vandalizing residential front doors and dropping defamatory leaflets containing messages like "I will not leave you alone." Mr. Lim, a man in his 20s, was also accused of scattering food waste and spreading human waste on a nearby stairwell.
Police believe the arrested individuals were acting under the direction of a larger organization and are actively tracking down their superiors. The investigation is also examining potential links to a similar vandalization case from December 7, which also involved threatening leaflets and cryptocurrency payments split among three individuals. A consistent theme across at least three cases is that the arrested operatives claim to have no knowledge of who ultimately hired and paid them, highlighting how the scheme exploits the transactional anonymity of crypto payments.
This case is part of a broader pattern in South Korea where cryptocurrency is linked to serious crimes. Earlier in 2025, a dispute over Bitcoin investment losses led to an attempted murder charge after a man allegedly poisoned his business partner's coffee with a toxic insecticide. The country's regulatory and institutional handling of crypto has also faced scrutiny, including a major incident where exchange Bithumb erroneously distributed $43 billion in Bitcoin due to a system flaw, and a blunder where the National Tax Service (NTS) publicly shared the seed phrase for wallets holding $4.8 million.
