The Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) said it would prevent an impersonation fraud through various measures, after confirming that an employment scam occurred in South Africa recently.

The measures include finding similar cases, discontinuing a download of KHIDI’s logo file, and developing a system to detect and prevent document forgery.

“We disclosed the recent incident and put on notice for precaution on our homepage,” an official at the KHIDI said. He added that a relevant division at the state agency was investigating if there were any similar cases and damages.

The contract latter, which the KHIDI impersonator sent to a South African citizen, seems to be complete with the Korean agency’s logo.

The official noted that the agency did not do any mineral-related business in South Africa. Besides, there is no procurement director position at the KHIDI, he said.

He also said that the KHIDI officially requested Linkedin, an online job portal, to close the perpetrator’s account and that Linkedin’s Korean agent was investigating the matter to prevent a similar incident.

In early July, Bright Muntali, who introduced himself as a citizen of the Republic of South Africa, contacted Korea Biomedical Review to report a suspicious email from a person named Michael B. Chang.

According to Muntali’s email, Chang claimed to be the director responsible for the Korean state agency's procurement.

Muntali said Chang contacted him through Linkedin, saying that the KHIDI needed a purchasing representative to proceed with its mineral business in South Africa.

When Muntali showed his interest in the offer, Chang sent an employment contract that seemed to contain all the necessary information that an official contract might have, such as the logo of KHIDI, on June 24.

After completing the recruitment process, Muntali contacted the mine that KHIDI and Chang allegedly wanted to purchase minerals and negotiated the ore price and quantity.

However, after the negotiations' details were sent to Chang for final confirmation, Chang started to change his words.

Chang suddenly demanded that Muntali pay the visa fee to send two KHIDH officials to South Africa to conduct a direct check on the minerals before completing the deal.

“Chang said that making an entry visa could only be handled in South Africa, and demanded that I pay the visa fee of $1,050,” Muntali said. “When I told him that I don’t have the money to pay such fees, he told me to seek cooperation from the mine. The employees who will visit South Africa to finalize the deal will repay the fees once they arrive here.”

After the email, Muntali began to suspect that Chang might not be legitimate.

After ending his contact with Chang, Muntali contacted Korea Biomedical Review to confirm if Chang was indeed an official from the agency.

However, the KHIDI confirmed that Chang’s email was a complete fraud.

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