Yoon Hee-geun's First Promise: Accelerating the Eradication of Malicious Fraud

First Promise After Appointment as Commissioner of Police
2200 Voice Phishing Suspects Arrested in One Month
Designation of Seven Major Malicious Frauds Including Jeonse Fraud
Acceleration of Establishing Integrated Reporting and Response Center
Speeding Up Unified Reporting and Processing

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Seongpil Cho and Byungseon Gong] Since his inauguration, Yoon Hee-geun, Commissioner of the National Police Agency, has accelerated investigations into eradicating malicious fraud, which he designated as his first public commitment. In particular, over 2,200 suspects involved in voice phishing crimes, which predominantly affect ordinary citizens, were apprehended within a month. The establishment of the ‘Integrated Reporting and Response Center for Telecommunications Financial Fraud (Voice Phishing)’ is supported by the necessary legal and institutional frameworks, promising a significantly strengthened response system.

On the 15th, the National Police Agency announced that it had uncovered 2,198 cases related to voice phishing crimes last month and arrested 2,273 individuals. By type, loan fraud accounted for 1,804 cases and 1,858 arrests, while impersonation of institutions accounted for 394 cases and 415 arrests. The police added that during the recent Chuseok holiday period, strict measures against voice phishing and tailored promotional activities with local related agencies led to a 7.6% decrease in the average daily number of incidents in the ten days before the holiday, from 838 cases last year to 774.8 cases this year.

Following Commissioner Yoon’s directive, the police defined voice phishing and jeonse (long-term lease) fraud as part of the ‘7 Major Malicious Frauds’ and formed a task force (TF). Provincial police agencies also established dedicated TFs to intensively crack down on these crimes. Among these, voice phishing has caused severe social harm, with damages increasing more than threefold from 247 billion KRW in 2017 to 774.4 billion KRW in 2021 over four years. The damage amount in the first half of this year reached 306.8 billion KRW. The police plan to continue focused crackdowns until December.

The establishment of the ‘Government-wide Joint Integrated Reporting and Response Center for Telecommunications Financial Fraud’ to unify voice phishing reporting and response is also progressing rapidly. In April, a preparatory team led by the head of the Economic Crime Investigation Division of the National Police Agency was formed, and on the 30th of last month, a Prime Minister’s directive regarding the center’s establishment was promulgated. According to the directive, the center chief will be at the superintendent general level, and advisors will be appointed by the police commissioner from among Grade 4 officials of the Financial Services Commission and the Ministry of Science and ICT. Upon the directive’s announcement last month, Commissioner Yoon stated, “The institutional framework to eradicate malicious fraud, our ‘No. 1 public commitment,’ has been established. We will ensure it produces tangible results,” emphasizing, “The police will take the lead to prevent voice phishing, an ‘economic murder’ that destroys families’ lives, from gaining any foothold in this land.”

The center will be located in the building of the 202 Security Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in Hyoja-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. The 202 Security Unit is an organization under the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency responsible for outer security and protection of the Blue House. Having recently relocated to Yongsan, the Hyoja-dong site is currently vacant. The National Police Agency plans to remodel this building for use as the center. Remodeling costs have been included in next year’s budget proposal.

Once operational, the center will fully unify the reporting and processing procedures. Until now, each government department operated separate reporting channels, requiring victims to contact 112 (police) for crime reports, 118 (KISA) for spam number reports, and 1332 (Financial Supervisory Service) for account suspension requests. This often caused delays in procedures that needed to be handled promptly to prevent further damage. The police plan to integrate phone reporting to 112 and online reporting and consultation through ‘Voice Phishing Guardian’ by the first half of next year, and by 2024, build an integrated platform to strengthen response systems through data analysis and sharing.

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