KCSC Takes Strong Action Against 'Celebrity Impersonation Scams', Urges Victims to Report

Recent Surge in Damage... Seeking Countermeasures
Report to the Committee Immediately Upon Recognizing Damage

The Korea Communications Standards Commission announced on the 9th that it will take strong measures against information that uses the likenesses of celebrities without permission.

An image of a false impersonation advertisement recently posted by Hong Jin-kyung on her social networking service (SNS) [Photo by Hong Jin-kyung Instagram]

It also plans to take proactive measures to review illegal financial information from unregistered and unreported companies that guarantee high returns and induce investment advice, in order to prevent economic damage to the public.

This response is understood to be a measure taken in light of the recent surge in fraud cases impersonating celebrities.

The Commission emphasized that in cases of unauthorized use of likeness rights, it is important for the person whose likeness is used or their representative to report directly, and urged immediate reporting to the Commission upon recognizing any damage. Likeness rights are personal rights, and the affected party must prove the damage for the review and correction requests to proceed.

If you have suffered damage due to infringement of likeness rights such as illegal or commercial use of your image, you can report it through the ‘Rights Infringement Information Review Application’ on the Commission’s website or the ‘Rights Infringement Information Review’ menu on the Internet Damage Relief Center’s website.

In the first quarter of this year, the Commission issued 100% correction requests for celebrity likeness infringement information directly reported by the affected parties, including posts that contained investment consultation inducements along with personal images, and will continue to respond strictly going forward.

Earlier, the 'Association for Solving Online Phishing Crimes Impersonating Celebrities' (hereafter Yusamo), which includes broadcaster Song Eun-yi, star instructor Kim Mi-kyung (CEO of Art Speech & Communication), John Lee (former CEO of Meritz Asset Management), Joo Jin-hyung (former CEO of Hanwha Investment & Securities), investor and comedian Hwang Hyun-hee, and lawyer Han Sang-jun (Daegun Law Firm), held a press conference on the 22nd of last month urging platform operators and the government to make efforts to resolve the issue. The Economic Crime Investigation Division of the National Police Agency told this publication, “From September last year to February this year, over 2,500 cases of illegal activities in investment leading chat rooms, including ‘celebrity impersonation scams,’ were reported over six months.”

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