"You're Invited to a Wedding"... Accidentally Clicking a Mobile Invitation Led to Losing 140 Million Won

Certificate and Personal Information Hacking Damage on Mobile Phones
Under Investigation by Busan Police Agency Cyber Investigation Unit

A case occurred where a large sum of money was withdrawn after being hacked by carelessly clicking on a mobile wedding invitation received on a cellphone.

According to Yonhap News on the 11th, Mr. A, who runs a business in Busan, received a mobile wedding invitation via text message on the 17th of last month that read, "You are invited to our wedding. We hope many will attend."

[Image source=Pixabay]

Mr. A clicked on a link labeled "Venue Information" to check whose wedding it was, but no content appeared. Therefore, Mr. A dismissed the mobile invitation, but on the 30th of the same month, dozens of unknown authentication messages were sent to Mr. A's cellphone.

By the next day, loans amounting to 140 million won were taken out under Mr. A's name from insurance companies and banks multiple times, and the money deposited into a specific account was withdrawn again through several mule accounts.

Police investigation revealed that Mr. A was a victim of "smishing." Smishing is a compound word of "SMS" and "phishing," where clicking on a fake internet address (URL) in a message can install malicious apps or leak personal information, causing harm.

At the moment Mr. A clicked the link in the mobile wedding invitation, a remote control hacking program was installed. The phishing criminals used this program to steal Mr. A's financial certificates and personal information stored on the cellphone and used them to obtain bank loans.

Mr. A reported to the police before the phishing criminals withdrew the funds, but the damage could not be prevented. It is presumed that the criminals committed the crime targeting weekends when financial institutions have difficulty responding.

A police official in Busan investigating this case stated, "The victim said it seemed another cellphone under his name was activated, and since there was no mention of accounts, we did not suspect (phishing crime)." He added, "Due to the large amount of damage in this case, after completing the basic investigation, it was transferred to the Cyber Investigation Unit of the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency."

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