Voice Phishing: 20s Involved in Crime, 30s and 40s Victimized by Loans

Voice Phishing Victim Survey Results
Scammer's Approach Stages Vary by Age Group

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] "Low-interest loans are available up to a maximum limit of 30 million KRW. Since you are currently using a high-interest loan product, you can refinance with a mid-to-low interest rate in the 8% range. However, because your current credit rating is low, it is better to increase your credit rating by transferring a certain amount of money multiple times to the financial company's account to build transaction records before taking out the loan." Last April, Mr. A received a text message impersonating a financial company and contacted them, receiving this guidance and transferring 4.5 million KRW to obtain a low-interest loan. The scammer exploited the fact that people in their 30s and 40s have high capital demand, impersonating a financial company and using the bait of providing low-interest loans to defraud funds.

According to the voice phishing victim survey analysis results released by the Financial Supervisory Service on the 30th, the most common approach method by scammers was via text messages at 45.9%, followed by phone calls (32.5%) and messengers (19.7%). The most common scam method was impersonating family or acquaintances at 36.1%. Impersonation scams involving low-interest loans pretending to be financial companies (29.8%) and scams pretending to be prosecutors or other authorities involving criminal entanglement (20.5%) also accounted for a high proportion.

The vulnerable scam methods differed by age group. For those under their 20s, the criminal entanglement type was the highest at 50.0%, while for those in their 30s and 40s, the low-interest loan impersonation type was highest at 38.0%, and those aged 50 and above were mostly victimized by impersonation of family or acquaintances (48.4%).

Among voice phishing victims, 35.1% installed remote control apps and 27.5% installed call interception apps at the scammer's request. In particular, those aged 50 and above showed a high installation rate of remote control apps (48.7%) and call interception apps (32.3%). The rate of scammers stealing personal and financial transaction information to open accounts without the victim’s knowledge also reached 19.3%.

Funds were mostly transferred via deposit transfers and non-face-to-face loans (48.5%) and non-face-to-face transfers (34.8%). The rates of face-to-face delivery (7.9%) and ATM (7.1%) were not high. Among victims, 25.9% recognized the voice phishing damage within the golden time of 30 minutes, and 64.3% recognized it within 4 hours. Victims who recognized the damage after 24 hours accounted for 19.0%.

Financial authorities, including the prosecution, police, and the Financial Supervisory Service, advise that they never request money transfers or collect financial transaction information under any circumstances. Therefore, if you receive such calls from strangers, you should verify the authenticity by using the official phone numbers of the relevant institutions.

They also emphasized that financial companies do not send advertising text messages for low-interest loans and that credit ratings do not improve even if multiple deposit and withdrawal transactions are made within a short period. Additionally, text messages requesting identification and financial transaction information claiming to be from a son or daughter are likely messenger phishing. Before replying by text, you must confirm by phone call whether the message was indeed sent by your son or daughter. Under no circumstances should you provide identification, account numbers, passwords, or click on URLs (remote control apps). Installing remote control apps or providing personal information can allow scammers to open accounts in the victim’s name or steal funds without their knowledge.

A Financial Supervisory Service official explained, "If you receive a voice phishing call or text and transfer funds, provide personal information, or install malicious apps, you should immediately call the financial company’s call center, the police (112), or the Financial Supervisory Service (1332) to request a suspension of account payments." He added, "Promptly suspending account payments to prevent scammers from withdrawing funds is the most important measure to prevent damage."

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