Smishing Texts Spreading Among Government and Related Agency Employees... Caution Advised

Recently, smishing messages of unknown origin disguised as obituaries or wedding announcements have been spreading among employees of government ministries and affiliated organizations, prompting financial authorities to issue special warnings.

According to financial authorities on the 12th, there has been a surge in incidents where fraudsters impersonating acquaintances of government ministry employees send obituary messages (KakaoTalk messages) containing suspicious URLs to victims.

If the victim clicks on the URL, they are redirected to a phishing site, which steals personal information stored on the victim’s mobile phone as well as contact information of acquaintances, including government ministry officials. It is presumed that malicious apps and illegal programs are used in this process.

The fraudsters then use the stolen personal information to send secondary and tertiary text messages to acquaintances such as employees of the government ministry where the victim works, repeatedly stealing personal information and exploiting it for messenger phishing and other scams.

Accordingly, the authorities urge people not to click on URLs in mobile obituaries or wedding invitations from unknown sources. If a malicious app has already been installed, users should scan and delete it using a mobile antivirus app (updated to the latest version), back up their data, reset their phone to factory settings, and seek help from acquaintances or mobile service centers.

In addition, in case of voice phishing damage, victims should request a payment freeze on the relevant account through the call centers of financial companies or the Financial Supervisory Service and apply for damage relief. If personal information is leaked, to prevent further damage, users can utilize the Financial Supervisory Service’s Financial Consumer Information Portal, Fine’s “Personal Information Exposure Accident Prevention System.” By registering personal information directly through this system, restrictions on opening new accounts or issuing credit cards can be applied to minimize additional damage.

An official from the authorities stated, “Clicking on URLs sent by fraudsters can install remotely controlled malicious apps and cause complete leakage of personal information, resulting in damage. Therefore, suspicious URLs should never be clicked.” They added, “Apps should only be downloaded through official app markets (Google Play, Apple Store, etc.), and requests to install apps from suspicious individuals should never be accepted.”

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