Police searching for victims of Internet dating scheme

Irvine police are looking for more victims of a woman they say used Internet dating sites to target Korean men in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Police arrested Sunmee Kim, 36, on Dec. 21 on outstanding warrants issued from both counties.

Kim was arrested a week after falsely reporting, under a stolen identity, that she was the victim of domestic violence, according to a police news release.

Kim used the report to remove the victim, a 44-year old Irvine businessman she had met on Koreancupid.com, from his home. While the man was in custody, Kim robbed him, according to the release.

A detective matched her fingerprints to those found in a criminal database after becoming suspicious of inconsistencies in her report.

Detectives have tracked Kim’s activities back to 2009, when the first known report involving her occurred, according to the release.

On multiple occasions, Kim has stolen Korean women’s identities and targeted Korean men, whom she met over the Internet, police said.

Irvine detectives will push for additional charges of false imprisonment by proxy, grand theft, forgery, false impersonation, identity theft and burglary, according to a news release.

Kim has been connected to at least six cases, but detectives believe there are more victims. Anyone with information is asked to contact Det. Sean-Paul Crawford at (949) 724-7249 or scrawford@cityofirvine.org.

— Sarah Peters

Twitter: @speters01