Can I Take Action in Korea If the Fraudster Is Overseas?

Short answer. Often yes, and the answer usually turns on where the offence is treated as having been committed rather than on where the person now is. Article 2 of the Criminal Act applies Korean criminal law to anyone, Korean or foreign, who commits an offence within Korean territory. Where the conduct was genuinely abroad and the offender is a foreign national, Article 6 applies Korean law to offences committed against Korea or Korean nationals, subject to a proviso: it does not apply where the act was not an offence under the law of the place where it was committed.

What Korean law says

Article 2 of the Criminal Act: the Act applies to both Korean nationals and foreign nationals who commit an offence within the territory of Korea.

Article 6: the Act applies to foreign nationals who commit outside Korea offences other than those listed in Article 5, against Korea or against Korean nationals. The proviso excludes cases where the act does not constitute an offence under the law of the place where it was committed, or where prosecution or execution of sentence there is exempted.

For a civil claim, the Act on Private International Law decides whether a Korean court has international jurisdiction, on the rules applicable to the type of claim.

Criminal Act, Articles 2, 5 and 6. Act No. 21450, in force from 13 September 2026. Act on Private International Law, Act No. 18670, in force from 5 July 2022.

What usually happens in practice

Most online fraud against people in Korea is not really extraterritorial. If a Korean account received the money, if the platform was used from Korea, or if the deception reached the victim in Korea, there is usually a Korean element that puts the case inside Article 2, and the location of the person becomes an enforcement problem rather than a jurisdictional one.

That distinction matters for expectations. A Korean investigation can identify accounts, freeze balances and establish what happened even where the person cannot be brought before a court quickly. The account-based remedies under the telecommunications fraud legislation work on the money, not on the person, and they are frequently the part that produces an actual recovery.

For a civil claim, the practical obstacles are service abroad and enforcement against foreign assets. Both are solvable and both are slow, so they belong in the plan from the beginning rather than being discovered at the end.

What you should do next

Establish the Korean element first: the account, the platform, where the deception landed.
Act on the money immediately. Account remedies do not depend on locating the person.
File the criminal complaint in Korea rather than waiting to identify the individual.
Plan service and enforcement abroad early if a civil claim is realistic.

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Written and reviewed by Soobin You, Attorney at YUSU Lawfirm. Former prosecutor. Last legal review: 12 September 2026.