Gwangju Police, 70% Increase in Voice Phishing Arrests

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] The number of telephone financial fraud arrests in the Gwangju area has increased.

According to the Gwangju Police Agency on the 8th, the number of arrests for this crime totaled 274 from January to May this year, a 70% increase compared to 161 cases last year.

The number of people arrested also rose by 89%, from 152 to 288 during the same period.

This is analyzed as the effect of active prevention activities carried out by the Gwangju Police in cooperation with the Financial Supervisory Service Gwangju Jeonnam Branch since May last year.

Related guidelines were established to report to the police if a certain amount of cash is withdrawn from a bank or repeatedly deposited at an ATM, raising suspicion of a collection agent, which proved effective.

The police also urged special caution as the number of young people who applied for part-time jobs under the pretext of high earnings but ended up acting as collection agents and becoming criminals is rapidly increasing.

A typical example is job advertisements on job search sites that bait with simple tasks such as office assistance, delivery, and surveys, deceiving victims into thinking it is legitimate financial work and instructing them to collect debts.

Analyzing voice phishing suspects by type, among the total of 288 people, 144 (50%) were cash collection agents, the largest group, with 89 in their 20s and 24 in their 30s, meaning 78% were young people under 30.

The police plan to collaborate with 'Gwangju Sarangbang' to display warning messages about the dangers of high-income collection agent part-time jobs disguised as simple tasks through banners and pop-up windows when accessing job search sites starting from the 9th.

Separately, they are also conducting voice phishing prevention education by sequentially visiting local universities such as Gwangju Women's University, Chosun University, and Honam University.

A Gwangju Police Agency official stated, "We will continue to do our best not only in continuous victim prevention publicity but also in arresting criminals to eradicate telephone financial fraud."

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