Yoo Jae-suk Also Empathizes with the Seriousness of Celebrity Impersonation Online Phishing... "Measures Must Be Taken"

132 People Including Yoo Jae-suk Say "Online Phishing Crimes Are Serious"
Comedians Song Eun-yi and Instructor Kim Mi-kyung Form Similar Association
If They Impersonate Celebrities to Solicit Investments or Money, It's Fraud

Comedian Song Eun-i, instructor Kim Mi-kyung, and others have come forward to raise awareness about the seriousness of online phishing crimes, stating that they do not encourage investments or solicit deposits. Joining this movement, 132 celebrities including Yoo Jae-suk urged the government and platform companies to come up with countermeasures.

At 2:30 PM on the 22nd, at the 19th floor of the Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul, instructor Kim Mi-kyung is announcing a statement at the press conference of the 'Meeting to Solve Celebrity Impersonation Online Phishing Crimes (hereafter Yusamo)' / Photo by Hwang Seo-yul chestnut@

On the 22nd at 2:30 PM, the "Meeting to Solve Online Phishing Crimes Impersonating Celebrities" (hereafter Yusamo) held its first press conference on the 19th floor of the Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul. Yusamo announced a statement to raise awareness of the severity of the crimes and to urge efforts from platform companies and the government to resolve the issue.

Yusamo is an organization formed mainly by instructor Kim Mi-kyung, Professor Kim Young-ik of Sogang University, YouTuber Ddotty, comedian Song Eun-i, former Meritz Asset Management CEO John Lee, former Hanwha Investment & Securities CEO Joo Jin-hyung, comedian Hwang Hyun-hee, and others. The statement from Yusamo includes participation from 132 celebrities such as Yoo Jae-suk, Kim Nam-gil, and Baek Ji-young.

Through the statement, Yusamo said that platform companies and the government need to prepare measures to prevent phishing crimes from occurring any further. Specifically, they called for ▲ platform companies to establish preemptive prevention measures and conduct phishing prevention campaigns ▲ the establishment of a dedicated investigation team for online impersonation crimes ▲ the creation of legal and institutional devices to prevent online platform phishing crimes in advance.

Instructor Kim Mi-kyung stated, "Since last year, celebrity impersonation crimes that started on Facebook and Instagram have been indiscriminately targeting people with fame and influence, including former presidents, conglomerate heads, entertainers, professors, and YouTubers."

On the 22nd at 2:30 PM, the "Meeting to Solve Celebrity Impersonation Online Phishing Crimes" (hereinafter Yusamo) held a press conference on the 19th floor of the Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul.
Photo by Hwang Seoyul chestnut@

Such phishing approaches individuals by baiting with free books or high returns, luring them into stock trading chat rooms, showing fake returns, and then demanding deposits under the pretense of investment. Song Eun-i said, "Many reports about impersonation content, such as photos I posted on SNS holding books, come from outside," adding, "There are too many victims, including young people who lose all the money they earned from part-time jobs and those who lose their retirement funds, which compelled me to speak out."

According to the National Police Agency, from September to December last year, there were over 1,000 cases of illegal activities in investment leading chat rooms, including celebrity impersonation scams, with damages exceeding 120 billion KRW. However, lawyer Han Sang-jun of Daegun Law Firm predicted that the total damage amount for actual victims would exceed 1 trillion KRW. Lawyer Han said, "The amount lost per person easily exceeds 100 million KRW, and there have been cases with damages over 3 billion KRW," adding, "We receive consultations daily from two or three people who have suffered damages exceeding 1 billion KRW." He further added, "The total scale of celebrity impersonation scam damages alone exceeds 50 billion KRW, and considering that our firm handles less than 5% of specific scam cases, the scale is expected to be over 1 trillion KRW."

Instructor Kim added, "Celebrities whose names and likeness rights have been stolen are also suffering from damage to their professionalism and reputation, and are being sued due to misunderstandings by victims," emphasizing, "Although individual celebrities have taken all possible measures, it is insufficient for individuals to stop online phishing crimes that are organized and operated overseas."

The celebrities attending the press conference also emphasized that online platform users should be cautious of phishing scam damages. Former CEO John Lee said, "I thought it was necessary to raise awareness about the seriousness of celebrity impersonation videos," adding, "If someone says 'send money,' you should consider it all fake." Comedian Hwang Hyun-hee also stressed, "I am a personal investor," and said, "I am not affiliated with any organization, do not receive solicitations or advertisements to encourage investments, and do not operate one-on-one chat rooms or communities."

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