Gwangju Area 'Face-to-Face Extortion' Voice Phishing on the Rise Every Year

715 Cases Occurred Last Year... 50% Increase Compared to Previous Year

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Voice phishing damage in the Gwangju area has been increasing every year.

According to the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency on the 8th, it was reported that there were 715 cases and approximately 15.8 billion KRW worth of voice phishing damage in Gwangju last year.

The number of cases increased from 358 in 2019 to 715 last year, and as of February 28 this year, 152 cases have occurred (an 18.7% increase compared to the same period last year).

The main voice phishing method is the ‘low-interest refinancing loan type (face-to-face fraud type),’ where criminals impersonate financial institutions and approach victims by promising low-interest refinancing loans, tricking them into repaying existing loans in cash, which is then stolen.

Among the 715 cases last year, more than half, 398 cases, were face-to-face fraud types. This year, 111 out of 152 cases (73%) are of this type.

After analyzing 173 cases of low-interest refinancing loan type (face-to-face fraud), the Gwangju police confirmed that the main victims were individuals holding existing loans with secondary financial institutions.

The victims had taken out a total of 199 loans from 55 financial companies (including savings banks, card loans, capital companies, and loan businesses) and were repaying them when they were deceived by criminal organizations promising low-interest refinancing loans.

Accordingly, the Gwangju police have established a division of labor support system by deploying an additional special investigation team in the criminal division specialized in arresting perpetrators, in addition to the three dedicated telephone financial fraud teams (16 members) at local police stations. They are focusing on promptly tracking and arresting collection agents and preventing further damage when face-to-face fraud cases occur.

Moreover, besides the five-member Anti-Corruption Investigation Unit, an additional dedicated team has been formed within the Violent Crime Investigation Unit (five members) to concentrate efforts on arresting main perpetrators such as domestic account recruiters, overseas call centers, and masterminds.

Since the establishment of the division of labor and cooperation between the Violent Crime Team and the Intelligence Team, a total of 298 people have been arrested and 55 detained from September last year to last month.

The Anti-Corruption Investigation Unit’s dedicated telephone financial fraud team arrested 37 domestic call center counselors last year and detained seven, and is currently tracking three individuals including overseas call center counselors, recruiters, and masterminds.

The Gwangju police plan to thoroughly crack down by actively conducting customized prevention publicity based on analysis of damage cases, as well as tracking and arresting not only collection agents but also higher-level operators.

A Gwangju Police Agency official said, “Citizens holding high-interest loans should be aware that if they are encouraged to install a bank app to fill out a loan application or hear phrases like ‘violation of banking laws, violation of terms, we will send a bank employee, so repay in cash’ during a phone call, it is 100% a scam.” He added, “If someone around you urgently asks to borrow cash claiming they need to repay the balance of an existing loan to receive a low-interest loan, they may be a victim of voice phishing, so you must verify whether it is a scam.”

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