"War on Voice Phishing"… Government Establishes 24-Hour Response System During Seollal Holiday

Government Holds Pan-Government TF Ahead of Holidays
Establishes 24-Hour Public-Private Joint Response System
Bang Gi-seon: "Determined to Wage War Against Voice Phishing"

Ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, the government has set a policy to strongly respond with the determination to wage 'war' against voice phishing crimes.

On the afternoon of the 7th, the government held a 'Voice Phishing Response Pan-Government Task Force (TF)' meeting chaired by Bang Gi-seon, Director of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, to review the response status to voice phishing crimes. Officials from related ministries, including the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, Ministry of Science and ICT, Financial Services Commission, National Police Agency, and National Intelligence Service, also attended the meeting.

The government established the pan-government TF in December 2021 and has been responding to voice phishing crimes. As a result, the amount of damage caused by voice phishing decreased for two consecutive years, reaching 447.2 billion KRW last year. Investigative authorities arrested 22,386 people involved in 20,991 voice phishing cases last year, and apprehended 886 key organization leaders, which is 35% more than the previous year.

However, voice phishing crimes have not subsided, with damages significantly increasing since November last year. The government noted that bait messages disguised as Lunar New Year events, traffic fines, emergency holiday fund support, and holiday greetings may increase around this Lunar New Year, and thus decided to establish a 24-hour response system.

The banking sector has already been operating a 24-hour response system since the end of last month, which immediately suspends payments upon detecting suspicious transactions and then verifies and lifts the suspension. The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) will also operate a 24-hour detection system during the Lunar New Year holiday period to promptly respond to text message scams.

The government explained, "At today's meeting, we shared the recognition that voice phishing crimes are serious crimes infringing on people's livelihoods and decided to strengthen our response with the determination to wage war against phishing scams."

First, the joint prosecution investigation team will strengthen crackdowns and investigations on international voice phishing organizations, organizations distributing fake bank accounts, and caller ID spoofing organizations, and will strictly punish offenders by actively applying enhanced case handling standards.

The police will also establish a 'Phishing Crime Investigation Division' within the Criminal Affairs Bureau of the National Investigation Headquarters this year to fully respond to phishing crimes such as voice phishing, messenger phishing, and bodycam phishing, unifying the response system and strengthening investigative functions.

Additionally, the 'Voice Phishing Integrated Reporting and Response Center' will build an integrated response platform to provide an online phishing report and tip-off channel. It plans to support the establishment of timely phishing response policies through regular public alerts and warnings as well as real-time data sharing with related agencies.

Director Bang Gi-seon said, "Phishing scams are serious crimes that steal the hard-earned property of ordinary people and leave deep wounds. The government will strengthen countermeasures with extraordinary determination to wage war against voice phishing throughout this year."

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