Housing scam counseling offered in 7 languages

Counseling services for foreign nationals in Seoul who fell victim to "jeonse" housing rental fraud will be offered in seven languages at the Seoul Foreign Resident Center in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Monday.

Starting Monday, the counseling services will be provided in English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Russian, Uzbek and Urdu, every Monday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Counselling is delivered by certified real estate agents in English and interpreted into these languages if necessary. Reservations for the counseling will be accepted via phone call or email.

According to recent data unveiled by the Land Ministry in August, about 300 foreign nationals nationwide were recognized as victims of scams abusing the country's lump-sum deposit-based rental system called jeonse. Scammers posing as landlords create false jeonse contracts to swindle victims out of large sums of money, which in most cases constitute a tenant's life savings. Foreign nationals account for about 1.6 percent of all jeonse scam victims, many of whom believed the money they were transferring was for a long-term housing contract that would have lasted for at least two years.

Meanwhile, the Seoul City Government revealed that real estate agents operating in the city include 219 English-speaking agents, 50 Japanese-speaking agents, 17 Chinese-speaking agents and seven more speaking other languages, such as Spanish or Russian.