"Mom, my phone is broken"... Messenger phishing damage increased by 165%

Last Year, Messenger Phishing Losses Near 100 Billion KRW
Financial Supervisory Service Reports and Consultations Increase by 36% to About 29,000 Cases
"Do Not Share Personal or Financial Information via Chat"

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-seop] Recently, Mr. A received a text message from his daughter urgently asking for help to claim mobile phone insurance because her phone was damaged. Following his daughter's request, Mr. Lee provided his resident registration number and bank account number via text and also installed an application (app). However, the daughter was a fraudster, and through the app, 6.25 million KRW was siphoned from Mr. A's account.

Messenger phishing scams impersonating family members or acquaintances via text messages or chat apps are on the rise. These scams use reasons such as phone malfunction or credit card loss to demand personal information and money transfers, and the scale of damage is increasing, requiring special caution from financial consumers.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on the 14th, the amount of damage caused by messenger phishing last year was 99.1 billion KRW, a 165.7% increase from 37.3 billion KRW the previous year. The number of messenger phishing reports and consultations received by the FSS’s Illegal Private Finance Damage Report Center also rose by 36.2% (7,720 cases) from 21,307 to 29,027 cases.

Consequently, the number of voice phishing crime reports and consultations also increased by 15.9% to 60,453 cases. This accounted for 85.9% of the total 70,371 damage (concern) consultations and reports received by the center last year. Illegal private finance cases increased by 25.7% to 9,238 cases. However, cases related to fraudulent fundraising slightly decreased by 1.7% to 680 cases.

Simple inquiries and consultations about related laws or response procedures totaled 73,536 cases, a 7.6% (5,206 cases) increase from 68,330 cases the previous year. As non-face-to-face loan consultations with unregistered lending companies increased, consultations expressing concerns about personal information leakage rose by 2,637 cases (84.1%). Consultations verifying whether text messages were impersonating financial companies also increased by 7,720 cases (36.2%).

The FSS has taken measures to prevent accidents and support victims according to the type of reports and consultations. In particular, for illegal private finance, where there are significant suspicions of violations and 613 victims requested criminal prosecution, investigations were requested from the prosecution and police. For 4,841 cases requiring relief such as stopping illegal debt collection, the FSS provided information on free support systems including debtor representatives and litigation lawyers.

The FSS warned, “Do not respond to requests to send personal and financial transaction information via text messages, and be careful not to click on links from uncertain sources.” It also cautioned, “Loan advertisements via text messages or the internet are highly likely to be related to loan scams or illegal loan brokerage fees, so caution is necessary.”

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