'OO Pay' Was Convenient... 382 Fraudulent Transactions and 1.4 Billion KRW in 5 Years

Hacking Surges Post-Pandemic
Rep. Kim Sung-joo Urges "Strengthening Security"

Seungjun Lee, a company employee in his 20s, was awakened last weekend by the sound of a text message in the morning. When he checked his phone, he found multiple texts about easy payment transactions. Between 11:28 AM and 11:30 AM, 42,000 KRW was deducted from his bank account in four separate transactions. He even received a statement in Chinese via email. Lee said, "I linked my bank debit card to the easy payment service and used it for deliveries or games, but suddenly payments were made on sites I never signed up for, so I was very shocked and immediately reported it to the police." He added, "My identity was stolen and payments were made, but I don't know if I can get a refund."

Over the past five years, as the use of easy payment services has increased, the number of fraudulent payment incidents has also risen, along with the total amount involved. In particular, since the pandemic began in 2020, the amount lost to fraudulent payments has surged significantly.

According to data submitted by the Financial Supervisory Service to Kim Sung-joo, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, there have been a total of 382 fraudulent easy payment incidents over the past five years, with a total loss amounting to 1.372 billion KRW. Fraudulent payments refer to transactions made without the user's consent due to identity theft, hacking, or personal information leaks.

Looking at the annual amounts lost to easy payment fraud over the past five years, 2018 saw 40.2 million KRW, and 2019 had 77.42 million KRW. However, after COVID-19, the amounts jumped to 309.33 million KRW in 2020, 435.02 million KRW in 2021, and 370.54 million KRW in 2022. Even by July of this year, the amount lost had already reached 139.74 million KRW.

Kim Sung-joo, Member of the Democratic Party of Korea./Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

The top five electronic financial service providers with the highest fraud loss amounts were NHN Payco (376.56 million KRW), Kukon (191.33 million KRW), Bizplay (144.08 million KRW), Chai Corporation (136.25 million KRW), and Lotte Members (107.35 million KRW). In terms of the number of incidents, SSG.com led with 93 cases, followed by Kukon with 72, Bizplay with 48, Gmarket with 39, and Chai Corporation with 38.

Some electronic financial service providers operate pre-compensation systems for victims of fraudulent payments. Naver Financial paid 10.88 million KRW out of 14.45 million KRW in losses as pre-compensation, Viva Republica (Toss) paid 10.15 million KRW out of 11.6 million KRW, and Kakao Pay paid 7.65 million KRW out of 22.61 million KRW as pre-compensation.

Assemblyman Kim said, "According to the Bank of Korea, as of last year, the daily average number of easy payment service transactions was 23.42 million, with a transaction amount of 732.6 billion KRW. As the use of easy payment services continues to grow, electronic financial service providers and financial authorities must strengthen information security and establish more thorough safeguards to prevent unjust victims from emerging."

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