"Buy Corona Theme Stocks" Spam: 110,000 Reports from January to March

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] It has been revealed that 110,000 reports of spam related to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) were filed over the past three months this year. Stock spam recommending masks or COVID-19-related theme stocks accounted for half of these reports.

According to the Korea Communications Commission's (KCC) announcement on the 'Spam Distribution Status' on the 25th, from January 26 to the present (as of 0:00 on the 24th), a total of 110,760 reports of COVID-19-related spam have been received. Among these, stock spam recommending theme stocks such as masks or vaccines accounted for 51,866 cases (47%), the highest number. Spam impersonating government or public institution COVID-19 notices accounted for 1,875 cases (17%).

When such impersonation-type spam is reported, telecommunication companies are requested to block it, and fines are imposed on businesses violating the law. The KCC has been operating a 'COVID-19-related Spam Intensive Response Period' since January 31 to actively respond to COVID-19-related spam and prevent public confusion. So far, the three major mobile carriers have blocked approximately 8 million COVID-19-related spam messages.

Additionally, the KCC has imposed a total fine of 78.75 million KRW on 11 senders of COVID-19-related spam detected so far.

Meanwhile, a total of 9.1 million voice spam calls on mobile phones detected in the second half of last year showed a 0.6% decrease in volume compared to the first half. By type, illegal loans accounted for 52.2%, telecommunications subscriptions 34.2%, adult content 6.0%, and finance 4.7%. Mobile phone text spam also decreased by 3.8% compared to the first half of 2019.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.