"Loan Fraud Voice Phishing 'Illegal Spam' Swiftly Blocked" Seoul Police and KISA Join Forces

Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency file photo / Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-ju] On the morning of the 24th, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency held a 'Task Council for the Prevention and Blocking of Voice Phishing' with the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) and signed a memorandum of understanding for mutual cooperation.

Since July this year, the two organizations have established a cooperative system to quickly block illegal spam in the form of loan advertisements and crack down on the senders. This is in response to the recent increase in cases where so-called 'bait messages' impersonating banks and other financial institutions are sent, inducing consultations and then being exploited for voice phishing crimes.

To this end, the Seoul Police Agency compares and analyzes 'voice phishing report data' with KISA's spam report data to block (suspend use of) illegal spam sending phone numbers confirmed to have been used for voice phishing. Through joint inspections, they have identified businesses operating spam sending companies that provided phone numbers and programs allowing voice phishing criminals to send loan advertisement spam, and are conducting investigations on charges such as aiding and abetting voice phishing.

[Provided by Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency]

Based on this cooperation, as of the end of last month, the Seoul Police Agency and KISA have suspended the use of over 60,000 illegal spam phone numbers and blocked 462 spam advertisement sending accounts and 215 KakaoTalk accounts. In addition, the Seoul Police Agency identified two voice spam sending companies, arresting one person and indicting another without detention. Investigations are ongoing for 183 individuals including the registered users. They are suspected of providing voice spam sending services and using 2,862 phone numbers opened under others' names from November last year to June this year, knowing that voice phishing organizations used them for spam sending.

At the task council held that day, the two organizations discussed effective response measures and cooperation regarding voice phishing using loan-related spam, and agreed to cooperate in developing new techniques (technologies) or systems for future voice phishing prevention and blocking. Seoul Police Chief Choi Gwan-ho said, "With the development of information and communication technology, voice phishing methods are continuously becoming more sophisticated and advanced," adding, "Through close cooperation and information sharing with related organizations such as KISA, we will further enhance Seoul Police's security capabilities to swiftly develop prevention and blocking techniques that can promptly respond to changes in criminal methods."

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