Relief for Victims of New 'Account Threat' Scam... Allowing 'Partial Payment Suspension'

The Party and Government Announce the 2nd Financial Sector Voice Phishing Countermeasures

To block new types of financial fraud such as so-called 'account intimidation,' where perpetrators impersonate voice phishing victims and freeze the victim's account to demand money under the pretext of lifting the freeze, financial companies will be allowed to implement 'partial payment suspension.' This measure aims to prevent the spread of damage by enabling payment suspension only on the amount of the victim's loss if the account is determined not to be used for fraud.

On the afternoon of the 28th, the Financial Services Commission announced the '2nd Financial Sector Voice Phishing Countermeasures' after consultations with the ruling party. This new plan follows the first countermeasures announced last September and includes measures to block new types of voice phishing using account intimidation, virtual asset exchanges, and prepaid service providers.

First, the ruling party and government will initiate institutional improvements to assist the increasing number of account intimidation victims. Currently, victims of account intimidation are not given opportunities to lift payment suspensions, and due to the nature of the crime often involving accounts under others' names, there are no proper means to respond when victims refuse to return the money to voice phishing victims.

Accordingly, the ruling party and government have allowed financial companies to implement partial payment suspensions if they determine that the account in question was not used to acquire the fraud proceeds. This allows payment suspension to be maintained only on the amount corresponding to the victim's loss, thereby cutting off incentives for account intimidation crimes.

Measures will also be taken to block voice phishing using virtual assets. Cases of crimes involving virtual assets include perpetrators transferring victim funds from financial institution accounts to virtual asset exchanges to convert them into virtual assets, using purchasing agents for conversion, or forcing victims to send virtual assets to the perpetrator's electronic wallet. To prevent this, the ruling party and government plan to apply the same victim relief procedures (payment suspension, objection, debt extinguishment, victim compensation, related account suspension) to virtual asset exchanges as to financial companies. If victim funds are converted into virtual assets, the exchange will immediately suspend the perpetrator's account and begin victim relief efforts.

Additionally, to prevent cases where victim funds held as virtual assets are transferred to overseas exchanges or personal electronic wallets for cashing out, identity verification procedures will be strengthened for virtual asset transfers starting in the second half of this year. Furthermore, from next year, a cooling-off period (72 hours for the initial KRW deposit, 24 hours for additional deposits) will be applied when transferring virtual assets to other exchanges or personal electronic wallets to preserve victim funds for a certain period.

The ruling party and government will also respond to voice phishing crimes using prepaid service easy remittances. Upon voice phishing reports, prepaid service providers will be required to provide financial transaction information to financial companies to enable prompt payment suspension and victim compensation. Due to the nature of prepaid services allowing remittances with only an ID or phone number, it was previously difficult to identify the perpetrator's account, requiring remittance confirmation certificates and causing significant delays in payment suspension and victim compensation.

Institutional improvements will also be made to further strengthen financial companies' responses to voice phishing. The ruling party and government plan to require banks to establish a 24-hour response system related to voice phishing. Monitoring staff will respond during weekdays from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., when 90% of voice phishing crimes occur, and automatic temporary measures such as immediate payment suspension will be enabled upon detection of suspicious transactions after 8 p.m. on weekdays or during weekends and holidays.

The ruling party and government plan to begin revising the Voice Phishing Act through legislative proposals by lawmakers in April. Nam Dong-woo, head of the Financial Services Commission's Financial Crime Response Team, stated, "Regarding this, we will promote legislative proposals for necessary legal amendments and submit them to the National Assembly, while promptly developing systems for financial companies to respond to evolving voice phishing methods."

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