Fishing texts amid the coin craze... 'Exchange impersonation' smishing up 40% YoY

Spam Blocking App 'Whowho' Announces Q1 Statistics

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Since the 2017 cryptocurrency craze, 'exchange impersonation' smishing messages, which had disappeared, have recently reappeared along with the renewed popularity of cryptocurrencies.

According to Whoscall & Company, which operates the spam blocking app 'Whoscall,' the number of reported and received spam calls and texts in the first quarter increased by about 2 million compared to the same period last year, totaling 6.8 million. This is about 120,000 more than the previous quarter.

The number of smishing cases reached 140,000, showing a 40% increase compared to the previous year, marking the steepest rise among all categories. Smishing is a method where clicking on an internet address in a text message installs malicious code on the smartphone, causing the victim to unknowingly make small payments or have their personal information stolen. Unlike voice phishing, which requires complex actions such as deposits, consumers can suffer significant damage through simple actions like clicking on an internet URL link.

In particular, exchange impersonation smishing messages are rampant. According to the 'Real-time Smishing Risk Detection' data newly provided by the Whoscall app, smishing cases detected since mid-February, when the cryptocurrency surge began, reached 20,000. In mid-March, when the surge of Korean native coins started, the number peaked at about 70,000.

The most reported type was stock and investment spam. This category increased by 2.9 million cases compared to the same period last year, totaling 19.4 million cases. This surpasses the previous quarter's loan solicitation type (18.2 million) and is the highest quarterly number since data collection began. In March alone, there were 7.1 million cases, the highest monthly figure. This is analyzed as reflecting the social trend where cryptocurrencies are gaining attention following stock margin investing (borrowing money to invest).

Heo Tae-beom, CEO of Whoscall & Company, warned, “Spam is evolving diversely according to social issues, and recently, cryptocurrency-related smishing is one of them,” adding, “Typically, it impersonates login alerts from specific exchanges via text, claiming logins from different IPs, sending fake exchange links to install malicious code, and stealing virtual assets.”

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