"Did You Receive COVID-19 Government Support?"... Severe New Type of Voice Phishing

Korea Post Headquarters Reveals 22 Types of Scam Cases... Fivefold Increase in Damage Amount Over 5 Years

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] #1. Mr. A, in his 50s, who usually conducted transactions at the post office, was deceived by a voice phishing scammer claiming that low-interest loans were available after repaying existing loans. He tried to withdraw money from the post office and hand it over to the criminal. However, a suspicious post office employee ended the call, kept the cash at the post office, reported it to the police, preventing a loss of 26 million won, and the delivery agent (accomplice) was also arrested.

#2. Mr. B, in his 80s, was deceived by a voice phishing caller impersonating the police agency, who told him that he was involved in a crime and should withdraw cash from a financial institution and keep it at home. He tried to withdraw about 260 million won from the post office. Sensing something suspicious, the post office employee, together with the police, persuaded him not to proceed, preventing the damage.

These are cases from the ‘2021 Post Office Voice Phishing Damage Prevention Casebook’ released on the 6th by the Ministry of Science and ICT’s Postal Service Headquarters. According to the police agency, the scale of voice phishing damage reached 700 billion won last year, nearly five times the 146.8 billion won in 2016.

Financial institutions such as post offices and banks continuously conduct prevention activities to block voice phishing damage, but as the methods diversify and become more sophisticated, the problem has not been eradicated. The post office also continues prevention activities such as staff training and publicity to prevent customers from falling victim to voice phishing. From 2017 to 2020 alone, the post office prevented about 9.7 billion won in voice phishing damage across 380 cases.

Recently, loan scams claiming to provide COVID-19 government support loans have been rampant. There are many cases of institution impersonation using pretexts such as involvement in criminal cases and false product payments, family or acquaintance impersonation claiming that the phone is broken and sending KakaoTalk messages via computer, and kidnapping/blackmail types impersonating loan company employees claiming that a child is being held captive. This casebook contains a total of 22 major damage prevention cases to help understand the methods used by voice phishing scammers.

It also provides key behavioral guidelines for preventing voice phishing damage, such as always refusing monetary requests claiming to be from the prosecution, police, Financial Supervisory Service, or financial companies, and instructions on how to respond if funds have been transferred to accounts used for scams. The casebook is stocked at post offices nationwide so that anyone can access it.

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