Police and Convenience Store Industry Join Forces to Conduct 'Messenger Phishing' Prevention Activities Through Year-End

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] The National Police Agency announced on the 2nd that it will carry out prevention activities in collaboration with the convenience store industry to prevent messenger phishing.

Messenger phishing is a crime in which victims are deceived through text messages or messengers to obtain financial benefits. It usually starts by impersonating the victim's family or acquaintances and requesting the transmission of personal or financial information or remittance.

In particular, the police explained that recently, methods involving purchasing gift certificates such as cultural gift certificates or Google gift cards, which do not require personal authentication, and then asking for the PIN numbers to be sent have become frequent.

To prevent such messenger phishing, since December last year, the National Police Agency has been working with the Korea Convenience Store Industry Association (CU, GS25, Ministop, 7-Eleven, C Space) to display warning and guidance screens and play audio messages about messenger phishing prevention to customers and convenience store workers through POS (Point of Sale) terminals when customers purchase gift certificates above a certain amount.

The police decided to extend the joint response, originally scheduled until May, until the end of this year. In addition, a "special crackdown on cyber fraud" is being conducted until the end of June.

A National Police Agency official said, "We thank the convenience store owners and workers who have stepped up to prevent messenger phishing," and urged, "When family or acquaintances ask for personal or financial information via text messages or request proxy purchase of gift certificates, please be suspicious first and always verify by direct phone call."

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