Kim Hyeonja asked with a shocked expression.
“How do you know… Richard, Reporter Lee?”
“Before I explain, let me ask you something first. Ma’am, have you perhaps sent Richard… any money?”
Kim Hyeonja felt her heart drop.
She desperately wanted to know how a man named Reporter Lee Hyeonwook knew Richard and how he knew Richard had asked her to lend him money, but there was one thing she sensed instinctively.
A scam.
Otherwise, there was no explanation for why the reporter would ask as though he knew something.
Mrs. Kim Hyeonja shook her head with a bewildered look in her eyes.
“Whew, you did well. What a relief.”
I had been worried because her expression did not look good.
I had feared she might already have sent him several million won, but she had not.
It truly was a relief.
“Ma’am, there’s someone I’d like to introduce to you. She knows quite a bit about Richard. Would you like to meet her in person and hear her explanation?”
Mrs. Kim Hyeonja was so startled that she seemed to have lost the ability to speak. Even so, she blinked and slowly nodded at my words.
She must want to know what was happening.
She must wonder why both I and another person knew Richard.
More than anything, she must truly want to know who Richard was.
I picked up my phone and made a call.
“This is Lee Hyeonwook. Yes. It’s today. Yes. Please come to the agreed meeting place later. I’d like you to explain Richard to her.”
Lunchtime, in a private room at a Chinese restaurant near the KCN broadcasting station.
Mrs. Lee Yangju, Jeon Yeongsu’s mother, sat with a tense expression.
She took a sip of the warm tea and drew a deep breath.
‘I hope she won’t be too shocked…’
A week earlier, the bachelor reporter had come to her carrying a smartphone.
Her Yeongsu used a phone that looked like that too, so it was not completely unfamiliar to her, but she still could not help being surprised.
That was because he had said he would give it to her as a gift.
「To be honest, it’s closer to a bribe than a gift. I’d like you to help me with something using this smartphone.」
She had been delighted.
He was already the lifesaver who had given her son a new lease on life, and merely packing a few side dishes for him from time to time had not felt like enough.
She wondered how much help someone like her could possibly be, but the fact that she could help him at all made her extremely happy.
「Just tell me what you need. I’ll help you with anything.」
Learning to use a smartphone was not as difficult as she had expected.
‘I’ve been playing Go-Stop online for years, haven’t I?’
She did not tell the bachelor reporter about that particular experience.
It was entertaining to watch the astonished expression on his face whenever she followed his smartphone instructions well.
「Touch this here. Yes, good job. Then touch this symbol. Don’t press and hold it. Just tap it lightly.」
「Do I do this one like this?」
「Yes, that’s right. You’re genuinely good at this, ma’am.」
「Hohoho. What am I supposed to be so good at? Hohoho.」
Suyeon also stopped by frequently to teach her.
「I’ll show you how to communicate with Mr. Yeongsu through your smartphone.」
「My, there’s something like that?」
Suyeon said she could easily find out how Yeongsu was doing through a smartphone.
She called it social media, and when they visited what she said was Yeongsu’s account, photographs of him truly appeared one after another.
She could immediately see pictures of the people he studied with, the room where he lived, the scenery and weather in Germany, and the food he ate.
She had already been wondering what he ate and whether he had met good people this time.
Even when she asked him over the phone, he only said he was doing well. But her thoughtful son had never once admitted when he was not all right, so how could she simply take his word for it?
「I know you hold yourself back from calling even when you want to ask because you’re worried Mr. Yeongsu might be busy. At times like that, enter his account and look at his pictures like this. I’ll tell him to post photographs more often.」
She was simply grateful for all of them: Yeongsu, who was doing well; the bachelor reporter who had given her such a smartphone; and Suyeon, who warmly taught her how to use it.
「Shall we make you a social-media account now too, Mother? Mr. Yeongsu will be able to see how you’re doing as well. If you post a picture whenever you make a new side dish, I’ll be able to see it too. Hehe.」
The purpose of this training was to draw Richard’s attention, uncover his true identity, and reveal it to Mrs. Kim Hyeonja.
Fortunately, Mrs. Lee Yangju found it enjoyable when they first taught her how to use social media so that she could communicate with her son.
— Click!
Seo Suyeon took Lee Yangju’s picture with a gaze filled with affection.
「Now we’re going to upload this picture. Touch this here, then touch the little picture-shaped symbol. Yes, like that. Yes, that’s right. You’re good at it now.」
Less than a full day had passed since the photograph was uploaded to Lee Yangju’s social-media account.
— Ding-a-ling, ding!
Instead of the comment from Yeongsu that she had been waiting for, a comment appeared from some unfamiliar man.
That was when it began.
The bachelor reporter and Suyeon’s grueling special training in social media.
She continued chatting through messenger with the shameless man who said her smile was so beautiful that it had stolen his heart.
At a glance, he looked like a scammer.
「This is where it becomes important. Ma’am, please play the role of a wealthy older woman. We need to catch this scammer.」
Gasp! A scammer? A wealthy older woman?
It was thrilling. She was excited.
[Michael looks handsome in his picture too.]
Handsome, my ass. You picked the wrong person this time.
[Michael tells me I’m pretty, so I feel happy every day.]
Happy, my foot. Just wait until I catch you.
[How expensive are houses in America these days? It feels like such a waste to keep leaving money in my bank account, so I’d like to make some overseas investments.]
If I had that kind of money, I would waterproof the roof of my house one more time.
He immediately took the bait.
He supposedly knew a truly competent expert, knew of a reliable investment opportunity no one else knew about, and so on and so forth.
The western state of California was supposedly good for investing in America, but he lived in the east. He could personally handle things for her, but his card had been suspended, and on and on he went.
He certainly took his time asking her to send him money.
After teaching her social media and having her receive a request for money from Michael, the bachelor reporter finally brought up the real issue.
「There’s someone who is on the verge of having her money taken by a man like Michael. That man calls himself Richard. Could you meet her personally and tell her that Richard is a fake without hurting her too badly? She’s a woman who works as a cleaner at our broadcasting station…….」
As Lee Yangju recalled the story of Mrs. Kim Hyeonja that the bachelor reporter had told her, the private room’s door slid open with a rattle.
It was Kim Hyeonja.
She looked thoroughly exhausted, perhaps because she had come after finishing work. That only made her tense expression stand out more clearly.
“Hello. Reporter Lee Hyeonwook introduced me to you.”
“Yes, welcome. It’s lunchtime, and I thought a quiet room would be better than a crowded café, so I asked you to come here.”
“Yes. Thank you. Well…… Reporter Lee gave you a general explanation, right? I……”
The words did not come easily to Kim Hyeonja.
She still could not believe that Richard truly was a scammer, and it felt as though she were exposing her shame to someone she had never met before.
Lee Yangju understood that perfectly well.
“Yes, I heard. But before that, why don’t we eat something and then talk? Even Mount Geumgang comes after a meal.”
“Ah, yes. Let’s do that.”
An hour later, the table held two empty bottles of soju and one bottle of gaoliang liquor, along with dishes that had once contained jajangmyeon, jjamppong, and sweet-and-sour pork.
“I’m telling you, sis. That Richaaard bastard is a scammer.”
Having mastered the use of social media, Lee Yangju searched for and showed her the second and third Richards and Michaels currently operating online.
Shocked by what she saw, Kim Hyeonja began crying, and thus began the rally of soju and gaoliang liquor.
“Sniff…… My miserable life. Richard, no. I’m gonna kill that bashtard.”
They shared the stories of losing their husbands early, the years they had spent raising their sons alone, and the fact that they were of similar ages, only two years apart, and did not live far from each other. They quickly became best friends who shared their hearts.
What in the world was this?
— Reporteeeer! I can’t let thish go! My little sis and I are gonna catch that Richard bashtard!
I had rushed over immediately after receiving Mrs. Kim Hyeonja’s phone call at the office, her pronunciation slurred from alcohol.
The landlady and Mrs. Kim Hyeonja were pressed closely together, patting each other’s backs.
Their faces were bright red and their eyes unfocused, but they wore expressions of sincere concern as they comforted each other.
‘You completed the mission splendidly.’
I had asked her to explain it without hurting Mrs. Kim, and this was how she had carried out the request!
The landlady seemed to understand perfectly what it meant to have a heartfelt conversation.
“Ma’am. You were serious when you said you wanted to catch Richard, right?”
“Of coursh I wash.”
“Bachelor reporter, catch that bashtard for us. Avenge our Hyeonja unnie. I’m gonna shmash that bashtard to pieces.”
I began sending social-media messages from Mrs. Kim Hyeonja’s smartphone.
[My Richard. Don’t worry about money. I can give you fifty thousand dollars, not merely five thousand. I don’t have anywhere else to spend it anyway. I already bought a Rolex to give you when you come to Korea.]
— Ding-a-ling, ding!
A reply arrived with a cheerful notification sound.
[Then I will. Request. Repay. In Korea. The place to send money is Joeun Bank XX-XX-XXXX, Park Cheolmin. It is a special account belonging to an intermediary company for overseas transactions.]
You really were desperate.
The account number appeared as though he had been waiting impatiently to provide it.
I opened my reporting notebook and checked Richard’s information again.
[Bonus Points Activated: Providing information on Richard.]
[Richard: Hwang Seonju, 34, homemaker, 121-3 Gudang-dong, Gangcheon-gu, Seoul]
My guess was that the account belonged to Hwang Seonju’s husband or a man with whom she was having an affair.
[Richard, I don’t use banks. I use cash so I don’t have to pay taxes. Couldn’t I give the money directly to that man named Park Cheolmin? I’ll give you fifty thousand dollars rather than five thousand, so resolve all the customs problems and hurry to Korea.]
This time, a reply did not arrive immediately.
Meeting in person obviously carried risks, so they would not be able to decide recklessly.
However, the temptation of fifty thousand dollars would not be easy to resist.
If they were blinded by a sum well over fifty million won, they might not even notice how clumsy the lie in my message was.
After paying the restaurant bill and putting the landlady and Mrs. Kim Hyeonja in my car, a reply arrived.
Of course.
They had taken the bait.
I unconditionally agreed to the location and contact method they requested, then hurriedly contacted Prosecutor Gu Hyeongjin.
A few days later, D-Day finally arrived.
I was at the scene with Prosecutor Gu Hyeongjin’s group, Ju Myeongjin, Mrs. Kim Hyeonja, and the landlady.
No one could believe that the youthful-looking Hwang Seonju was the culprit, but I immediately singled out the suspiciously dressed woman. It was because I already knew her sex and age.
Prosecutor Gu Hyeongjin questioned her. Hwang Seonju, caught off guard, confessed. Ju Myeongjin filmed everything at the scene. As Hwang Seonju was taken away, Mrs. Kim Hyeonja hurled satisfying curses at her back, while the landlady shouted even louder than she did.
The scene was truly overflowing with energy and fighting spirit.
“Entertainment expenses?”
Those words, which Gu Hyeongjin repeated somewhat loudly after Hwang Seonju barely muttered them in a small voice, had served as kindling.
And so it was revealed to the world that Hwang Seonju, a thirty-four-year-old full-time homemaker, had committed romance-scam fraud to pay for her entertainment expenses.
Because it was attempted fraud, her sentence might not be severe, but it could never be called a minor offense.
Now it was my turn to expose her on the air.
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