"70% of Spam Numbers Requested for 3-Year Service Restriction Are Altteul Phones"

Kim Young-joo, Democratic Party Lawmaker, Points Out
"Government Agencies Must Preemptively Block"
Strong Regulation Urged for Telecom Companies as Well

[Asia Economy Reporter Minyoung Cha] Over the past three years, more than 70% of the approximately 123,000 spam report numbers for which government agencies requested usage restrictions were numbers of users of MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) services.

On the 7th, Kim Young-joo, a member of the Democratic Party under the Science, Technology, Information and Communications Committee, analyzed data received from the Korea Communications Commission, Korea Internet & Security Agency, and the Central Radio Management Office. The analysis showed that among the approximately 123,000 numbers restricted due to illegal advertisements and illegal spam messages, 70% were MVNO user numbers.

According to the Central Radio Management Office's requests over the past three years (January 2019 to June 2022), MVNO accounted for 86,860 cases (73.13%), the majority, followed by KT with 22,799 cases (19.19%), LG Uplus with 4,727 cases (3.97%), and SK Telecom with 4,385 cases (3.69%). The Korea Internet & Security Agency and the Central Radio Management Office currently request the relevant mobile carriers to restrict the use of spam report numbers to minimize damage caused by illegal spam.

Requests made by the Korea Internet & Security Agency over the past three years (August 2019 to August 2022) also showed MVNO leading with 3,190 cases (72.40%), followed by LG Uplus with 685 cases (15.54%), KT with 321 cases (7.28%), and SK Telecom with 210 cases (4.76%). Most spam messages were related to illegal loans, financial fraud, illegal advertisements, stocks, and gambling. According to the Central Radio Management Office, illegal loan messages accounted for approximately 78,000 cases (65.90%), and financial fraud messages accounted for 40,121 cases (33.87%).

Democratic Party of Korea Representative Kim Young-joo Photo by Yonhap News

Representative Kim said, "Although citizens are inconvenienced and suffer financial damage from illegal spam and advertising messages, the number of illegal advertisement messages is increasing every year," adding, "The government agencies in charge must prepare measures to proactively block these problems, and mobile carriers should establish stronger regulations than those currently in place."

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