[2021 National Audit] Jeong Pil-mo: "Prepaid Subscription Procedures for Alttul Phone Are Lax... Urgent Need for Countermeasures"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Eun-mo] In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic making non-face-to-face interactions commonplace, concerns have been raised that prepaid budget phone subscriptions are being made using forged identification cards, highlighting the need for related countermeasures.

At the National Assembly Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee (STIBC) audit on the 1st, Rep. Jeong Pil-mo of the Democratic Party pointed out this issue and urged the establishment of improvement measures.

Rep. Jeong explained, "Currently, 18 budget phone companies are selling non-face-to-face, and in the past three years, 3.63 million budget phones have been activated non-face-to-face," adding, "Recently, mobile phone subscriptions through non-face-to-face methods have been increasing." He continued, "In this situation, prepaid budget phone subscriptions are being made using forged ID cards with only the photo changed," and pointed out, "Since mobile phones are used as a means of identity verification in daily life, such as banking, this can cause serious problems."

Rep. Jeong criticized, "Last November, there was already financial fraud involving the use of stolen IDs to activate budget phones and obtain card loans," and said, "Even after 10 months, no improvement measures have been established." He added, "The financial sector goes through various additional procedures such as public certification in addition to ID verification when opening accounts," emphasizing, "We should strengthen identity verification procedures rather than focusing solely on convenience."

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