Financial Scam Alert Ahead of Chuseok... Banks Take Direct Action

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] As Chuseok approaches, various financial scams impersonating parcel delivery (gifts) or the National Support Fund are rampant, requiring caution. The banking sector is actively responding to prevent financial consumer damage by directly establishing an integrated response system from detecting to blocking voice phishing applications (apps).

According to the financial industry on the 16th, KB Kookmin Bank recently developed and applied its own financial fraud detection technology by reproducing fraud methods and analyzing transaction patterns with white hackers and those in charge of the Fraud Detection System (FDS).

It was difficult for banks to distinguish between fraudsters and legitimate customers during non-face-to-face transactions using customers' leaked personal information, but with this financial fraud detection technology, abnormal financial transactions by fraudsters can now be detected. A KB Kookmin Bank official explained, "Since applying the detection technology at the end of July, we have detected 3 to 4 suspicious transactions daily on average, blocked over 170 cases of unauthorized transfers, and protected about 2.5 billion KRW of customer assets. The AI-based voice phishing monitoring system introduced this year is also being advanced."

Shinhan Bank has been operating the ‘Anti-Phishing Platform 2.0’ since this year to monitor and detect the installation of malicious apps and prevent financial fraud in advance. Since April, it has extended voice phishing damage prevention monitoring to nighttime hours. As fraudsters increasingly attempt crimes after banking hours, monitoring is now conducted from 6 PM to 11:30 PM.

Hana Bank has equipped its banking app with a voice phishing app detection feature. If a voice phishing malicious app is detected during a financial transaction, the transaction is stopped to prevent voice phishing damage at the source. Since its operation began in November last year, it has removed voice phishing apps from over 1,000 customers monthly and prevented damage exceeding approximately 60 billion KRW.

Woori Bank, NongHyup Bank, and others are also using AI to extract and monitor suspicious voice phishing transactions, install voice phishing malicious app blocking services, and utilize RCS (Verified Logo Display) services that insert bank logos into text messages to easily distinguish them from scam messages, thereby preventing financial fraud damage. They also produce their own voice phishing prevention promotional videos and share them directly through the banks’ social media (SNS) channels.

Financial scams such as voice phishing and smishing (text message scams) often go unnoticed by victims. Therefore, it is important for financial institutions to monitor, detect, and block abnormal financial transactions within a short time. In fact, as the banking sector actively works to prevent financial fraud, voice phishing damage in the first half of this year decreased by 46.4% compared to the same period last year, totaling 84.5 billion KRW. However, with the Chuseok holiday approaching, smishing scams impersonating gift delivery confirmations and the National Support Fund are expected to increase, requiring consumers to be cautious.

A financial authority official stated, "During the Chuseok holiday period, we plan to intensively promote financial fraud prevention by cooperating with the financial sector to guide customers to be especially cautious about scam messages impersonating the National Support Fund, disaster relief funds, and others."

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