Coinone Prevents Voice Phishing Worth 725 Million KRW Over 6 Months

Domestic virtual asset exchange Coinone recently disclosed its achievements in preventing voice phishing damage over the past six months on the 28th.

Coinone prevented a total of 8 cases of voice phishing damage in the second half of last year alone. The customer assets protected through this amounted to approximately 625 million KRW. This year, it also prevented one voice phishing attempt worth 100 million KRW.

This is the result of Coinone User Protection Center's abnormal transaction detection monitoring and proactive measures. The Coinone User Protection Center analyzes the latest virtual asset voice phishing patterns based on previously reported damage cases and applies them primarily to monitoring.

Coinone disclosed two representative types of voice phishing targeting virtual assets through its website.

The institution impersonation type is a method targeting investor assets through three stages: luring, brainwashing, and inducing remittance. First, a message approving overseas payment is sent to the crime target to induce the installation of a malicious application. Then, when the victim calls to verify the facts by contacting the Financial Supervisory Service, the Prosecutor's Office, etc., the call is intercepted and received by the attacker impersonating the institution. The victim, brainwashed by the phishing attacker impersonating the institution, is deceived by the promise that their involvement in the crime will be checked and returned, leading them to deposit a large amount of assets.

Another type is the recently popular romance scam. The scammer approaches the victim by introducing themselves as a U.S. military personnel deployed overseas or a Hong Kong businessman through social networking services (SNS) and steals assets. They communicate daily with the scam target to build intimacy. Once trust is established, they induce the victim to join and invest in a fake virtual asset investment site by claiming to teach investment techniques. Then, by reflecting numbers on the website, they deceive the victim into believing actual profits are being made. When the investment amount grows large, they withdraw the assets deposited in the wallet and disappear.

Along with these representative voice phishing cases, Coinone also disclosed crime prevention precautions, urging investors to be especially cautious.

The five precautions are: not responding to requests to install smartphone apps from unclear sources; understanding that employees of the Prosecutor's Office, Financial Supervisory Service, etc., do not contact via SNS; official documents such as arrest warrants or complaints are not sent via SNS; investigations by law enforcement agencies are not conducted via phone or SNS; and if a malicious app is installed, using a landline or another smartphone to notify law enforcement agencies and Coinone Customer Center.

Jang Seok-won, head of the Coinone User Protection Center, said, "Coinone's efforts to protect investors, such as analyzing virtual asset crime types and advancing abnormal transaction detection systems, are showing tangible results," adding, "As criminal methods become increasingly sophisticated, we will continue efforts to create a safe investment environment."

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