A 39-year-old man who falsely claimed to be a university hospital doctor was sentenced to eight months in prison for defrauding two women of 81 million won. Cheongju District Court ordered him detained after finding that he used promises of marriage and fabricated financial emergencies to obtain money. He took about 78 million won from one woman in eight transfers between May and June last year, then obtained 3 million won from another woman he met on a dating app. The court said he had prior convictions for similar offenses, used a highly reprehensible method and had not reached a settlement with the first victim, while the second victim's losses had been substantially recovered. The case comes as reported romance scams in South Korea rose 73% to 2,192 last year, with reported losses more than doubling to 136 billion won from 67.5 billion won.