Last Year, Voice Phishing Losses Decreased by 28%... Messenger Phishing Impersonating Family Members Surges

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Hwajeong] The amount of damage caused by voice phishing continued to decline last year, following the previous year. However, with the increase in the use of non-face-to-face channels such as messengers after COVID-19, messenger phishing impersonating family and acquaintances surged sharply.

According to the "2021 Voice Phishing Damage Status Analysis" announced by the Financial Supervisory Service on the 19th, the total amount of voice phishing damage last year was 168.2 billion KRW, a 28.5% decrease compared to 235.3 billion KRW the previous year. Since 2019, due to the contraction of fraudulent activities caused by COVID-19, the damage amount has significantly decreased, but the rate of decline slowed compared to the previous year (65.0%).

Among the damage amount, 60.3 billion KRW was refunded to victims, resulting in a refund rate of 35.9%, and the number of victims totaled 13,204, a 27.7% decrease compared to 18,265 the previous year.

Although the overall damage scale decreased, messenger phishing damage surged. The damage amount from messenger phishing was 99.1 billion KRW, a 165.7% increase compared to the previous year, accounting for 58.9% of the total damage. The Financial Supervisory Service analyzed, "This is due to the increase in the use of non-face-to-face channels such as messengers after COVID-19, causing the fraud method to shift from loan impersonation to messenger phishing."

New types of fraud exploiting social interests are also thriving. New fraud methods have emerged using topics of high public interest such as COVID-19 related vaccinations, disaster relief funds, or presidential election opinion polls.

Damage through non-bank financial companies is also increasing. Bank-related damage amounted to 108 billion KRW, a 38.1% decrease compared to the previous year, but damage through securities companies surged to 22 billion KRW, a 144.4% increase. The Financial Supervisory Service explained, "This is because cases of damage through non-face-to-face account openings and open banking in non-bank sectors such as securities companies are increasing."

By age group, the damage amount was highest among those in their 40s and 50s at 87.3 billion KRW, accounting for 52.6%, followed by those aged 60 and over at 61.4 billion KRW (37.0%), and those in their 20s and 30s at 17.3 billion KRW (10.4%). The proportion of those aged 60 and over has been relatively increasing since 2019.

Considering that recent messenger phishing cases often use remote control apps, the Financial Supervisory Service plans to induce the introduction of technology that blocks app operation in financial apps when remote control programs are activated. Additionally, it will integrate new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) into the enhancement of suspicious transaction detection systems (FDS) to improve financial companies' response capabilities against new fraud methods. A Financial Supervisory Service official stated, "We will actively encourage other financial companies to participate in preventing financial fraud using advanced technologies such as AI video analysis technology for abnormal behavior detection at ATMs. Furthermore, to prevent damage through open banking, we will guide financial companies to establish and implement related measures through self-inspections."

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