Police are seeking to tighten regulations on the illegal trading of bank accounts and crack down on a growing class of what are known as money-transfer part-time workers, according to a report released Thursday.

The report, written by an expert panel convened by the National Police Agency, is calling for stronger penalties under the Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds. The agency aims to submit a bill to revise the law during the next ordinary session of parliament set to begin this month.

According to the report, criminal organizations are paying higher prices to acquire bank accounts that are then used to move illicit funds. Police analysis shows the average price paid per account reached ?35,000 ($223) in 2024 ¡ª around 1.5 times higher than levels seen in the 2011 to 2012 period.

In some cases, accounts have fetched as much as ?500,000, over seven times as much as the highest figure of ?70,000 recorded in the 2011 to 2012 period.

Accounts are typically solicited through social media posts advertising, ¡°We will buy your bank account,¡± or by persuading business owners to open multiple corporate accounts that are later resold. Numerous such accounts are then used to rapidly move stolen funds, making the funds harder to trace and the accounts less likely to be frozen by financial institutions.

Many people participating in the selling and trading of bank accounts are not aware that the practice is illegal, according to the report.

The report notes that such practices are closely tied to special fraud cases involving fluid, anonymous crime groups known as ³Ù´Ç°ì³Ü°ù²â¨±. In one case the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department uncovered, a Vietnamese crime group moved criminal proceeds through 11 different accounts, conducting 20 transfers within a single hour.

Police data show that illegal account trading remains widespread despite earlier legal reforms. In 2024, there were 4,362 crackdowns nationwide related to fraudulent account transfers ¡ª an increase of 2.7 times from 2014.

While penalties include a maximum of one year in prison or a ?1 million fine, the panel concluded the deterrent effect has been insufficient and that penalties need to be strengthened.

The report also highlighted the rise of ¡°money-transfer part-time jobs,¡± in which individuals are paid to receive funds into their personal accounts and forward them elsewhere, sometimes converting the money into cryptocurrency. These schemes are frequently advertised online and have been used by international fraud rings.

Because legitimate remittance businesses also exist, the panel recommended limiting new penalties to cases in which transfers are conducted for a fee without a valid reason.

The agency also endorsed introducing police-managed ¡°fake accounts¡± that could be supplied to criminal groups during investigations, both to monitor fund flows and to discourage illicit account trading.