My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 552

An inexplicable headache throbbed in my temples. It was a phenomenon that occurred when trying to recall a past closely tied to a case. Of course, I hadn’t known about it before. Even if I stumbled upon a case, there was nothing to remember from the past, so I gave up from the start and didn’t even try. It was faster to analyze everything from scratch.

‘But Hong Woo-jong isn’t like that.’

He wasn’t going to be caught as easily as the others, and because of that, I had to wrack my brain to catch him, no matter what. Of course, the only crimes directly linked to him were the attacks on Hong Geun-jong and his younger sister, Hong Min-young, and even those were just suspicions, but he was still a considerably dangerous guy.

“There is that. For now, the possibility is high.”

Lee Ji-soo’s face hardened at Park Do-joon’s words. A current member of the National Assembly, one who was almost certain to be re-elected, was the mastermind behind the kidnapping.

“Won’t the Daeguk Group interfere?”

“They won’t.”

That was certain. If they were to interfere, Hong Geun-jong wouldn’t stand idly by.

Either way, wasn’t he the one who caused me to lose my finger?

“Either way, this is a real problem. Where do we find those guys around here?”

It was true that Im Tae-moo did the disguises, but the location changed every time. They weren’t fools; they switched locations constantly.

“Maybe it would have been better to wait for Im Tae-moo to contact them.”

“It’ll be difficult. They probably won’t contact him.”

“Yes? Why?”

“Those guys aren’t stupid. They can’t be unaware that the police are involved. In that situation, they won’t contact him for the time being.”

“But they don’t know we found Im Tae-moo.”

“But they can’t be sure we haven’t. If they can’t find him, there’s a possibility of a public search.”

“Ah, right, a public search.”

Of course, just because a public search is conducted doesn’t mean it’s broadcasted on major networks, and people don’t memorize the faces, but even so, the probability of arrest increases dramatically when a public search is issued.

“Realistically, if a public search is conducted, Im Tae-moo wouldn’t fail to report it.”

“That’s true.”

If he found out by chance, Im Tae-moo would contact them, and the moment they called Im Tae-moo without thinking, they would be arrested.

“They’ll definitely try to find another expert that suits them. They won’t contact Im Tae-moo anymore.”

In the original course of events, the mistake made by the guys who committed crimes using disguises was that. They never thought Im Tae-moo would report them for disguising.

Of course, he didn’t report it because someone told him to. He worked as a make-up artist in various places, and one of those places was the police station, which had photos of publicly wanted people posted.

Im Tae-moo, who happened to see the photo, reported what he had done, and they were eventually arrested.

“Then there’s really no telling what those guys will do.”

Disguising themselves with an intellectual image means they’re committing intelligent crimes, and committing intelligent crimes means that the criminal activity takes place indoors, away from prying eyes.

“Most intelligent crimes take place indoors, and even for us, it’s almost impossible to track them.”

In reality, are there no crimes happening here in Anju-dong right now? Of course not. But the police can’t know, and even if they want to know, a warrant won’t be issued.

Therefore, in the case of all crimes committed indoors, it is virtually impossible to find them unless someone inside reports them.

‘Hmm.’

Park Do-joon pondered for a while.

‘What kind of crime will those guys commit here? A personal crime? No. He’s an intelligent guy. And this place is Hong Woo-jong’s territory, his origin.’

And when all the possibilities are combined, one name comes to mind: Wang Woo-hwan.

‘Wang Woo-hwan, is it that guy?’

Officially, Wang Woo-hwan has fled to China. But coming from China to Korea isn’t a difficult task.

‘Should I assume he’s here?’

Park Do-joon hesitated for a moment before shaking his head.

‘Let’s assume he’s here.’

Even if he’s not there, it’s true that there are definitely intelligent criminals, even very intelligent ones, among the criminal element.

Of course, even if it’s not Wang Woo-hwan, and therefore his personality is different, if I judge that the way he uses his head is similar, then predicting the situation that will happen next isn’t entirely wrong.

“An intelligent criminal in Anju-dong…….”

“Real estate fraud?”

“Probably not.”

In the case of real estate fraud, they usually throw out bait through phone calls, etc., and then approach potential victims with the idea that there’s something lucrative.

Even if it’s not that, they have to constantly contact and manage the other party.

“In that respect, that’s not how they were dressed.”

It’s true that they dressed up like experts, but at the same time, it wasn’t for a regular job. Of course, they dressed up more often than for kidnapping, but it’s not enough to commit fraud.

“Experts, huh. Ugh, it’s complicated.”

“We have to start with numbers first, at times like this.”

“Numbers?”

“Yes. There are four of them. That means it’s a job that requires at least four experts.”

At least that’s how it should be. Of course, fraud basically involves a large number of criminals.

“But if you divide the roles, it’s not like that.”

In most frauds, what’s important is the shill [a person who acts as an enthusiastic customer to encourage others]. And a small number of so-called experts.

“The shill doesn’t need to dress up that much, and you don’t even need four experts.”

Usually one person. At most two. Because if there are too many so-called experts, errors can occur between them.

The important thing is to incite the potential victim to hand over the money.

“There’s no reason why four experts are needed. The role of the self-proclaimed expert is to tell that person how beneficial this is.”

“Hmm.”

“But the fact that they spread out as many as four means that a lot of experts are needed.”

Real estate? But even real estate experts are questionable. After all, real estate experts are just real estate agents.

“Aren’t they investment experts? There are a lot of guys who talk about virtual currency experts these days.”

“Investment experts are possible, but I don’t know. Do you need that many people for that? After all, what’s important in virtual currency is the rate of return, right?”

Rather than four experts, one expert and three shills are more advantageous when committing fraud.

The most common thing that fraudsters do when committing fraud is to show off their accounts. That’s how they can deceive the other party into thinking, ‘This makes money.’

“But why would you need an expert to commit fraud?”

“I wonder?”

Lee Ji-soo tilted her head as if she didn’t understand at all. But Park Do-joon knew this method.

To be exact, it’s not a very popular method in Korea, but it was popular in the United States for a while, and there were even frauds worth trillions of dollars.

“Usually this method, that is, the method that requires experts, is often used when using scientific fraud.”

“Yes? Scientific fraud? Wait a minute, I don’t understand. Do science and fraud even go together? Aren’t they rather the opposite?”

“Unfortunately, no. Science is just a tool for fraudsters after all.”

“Yes?”

“For example, think about the famous medical kit fraud in the United States. Did that have a shill?”

“Ah!”

That fraud didn’t have a shill. Medical kit fraud was, in simple terms, the development of a futuristic kit that could examine as many as 130 diseases with a single drop of blood.

Investors believed those words, and the company even earned the title of unicorn [a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion].

“That’s right. I remember that. But that was all a fraud, right?”

“It was.”

At that time, everyone invested even though there were no products released. Even though some scientists and many doctors at the time claimed that it was scientifically impossible, investors went crazy investing, saying it would be successful.

Conclusion? Of course, everything was fake. There was no money left, and prototypes were released, but they couldn’t properly diagnose even 13, let alone 130.

“Why was such a fraud possible?”

“Experts.”

“That’s right.”

The person who founded the company was neither a scientist nor someone in the medical field. Nevertheless, many people believed in her and invested.

Did they believe in her? No. She was just setting the direction. The numerous scientists and experts hired under her believed they could do it.

But in conclusion, it was a vain hope. From the beginning, there was no scientist who could do that.

Investors did not realize that they had a lot of money and were in a position to use someone, so employees could not resist what the superiors demanded.

Scientists were hired, but they only researched as directed by their superiors.

Of course, some of the investment was used for their wages and development costs, but the rest simply disappeared like the wind.

The miracle that investors expected—’If this is all a lie, there will be a conscience declaration from within’—did not happen. After all, they are all just salaried workers.

“If there are experts, there is trust. It’s a common mistake that many people fall into.”

“Um.”

“You don’t have to go far right now. Why did China starve to death so much during the Great Famine?”

“I guess.”

When China was poor, they were desperate to increase food production. So, they sought advice from various places to find a way, and one of them was to plant rice densely.

Then the amount of crops would increase, so naturally, more grains would come out. The problem was that the opinion was given by a professor from a famous American university.

Of course, if he was a person who majored in agriculture, he would not have said such nonsense. But he was from a famous American university, but he was in science, not agriculture, and he had never even been to a rice paddy, let alone farmed in his life.

As a result, the closely spaced rice plants did not grow properly, and since the rice plants that did not grow could not bear rice, the result was a great famine in China, in which tens of millions of people starved to death.

“But such errors are still happening.”

“So, the fact that four people who look like experts are needed means it’s a fraud based on science.”

Lee Ji-soo tilted her head, chewing on those words.

“But those incidents are either incidents that happened in the past or incidents that were so large in scale that overconfidence occurred.”