Warning Issued Over Voice Phishing by Impersonators of District Office and Community Center Staff

Cases of Impersonation of KCIS Civil Complaint Center Confirmed
Financial Consumers Urged to Exercise Caution

Cases of voice phishing have emerged in which scammers impersonate officials from administrative agencies, such as district offices or community centers, to lure victims into calling a fake Korea Credit Information Services (KCIS) civil complaint center number, with the aim of stealing their personal information. Financial consumers are being urged to exercise caution.

According to Korea Credit Information Services on March 16, there have recently been cases confirmed where voice phishing scammers set up a fake phone number purporting to be the KCIS civil complaint center and induced victims to call, in an attempt to steal personal information. The method identified so far involves impersonating administrative agency staff. The perpetrators call the victim while pretending to be employees of a district office or community center, and falsely claim, for example, "Someone is attempting to issue documents using your ID card and a power of attorney." They then instruct the victim to call a counterfeit Korea Credit Information Services number they created, claiming it is necessary to report identity theft or block access to credit information.

If the victim calls the provided number, they are greeted with a message stating it is the "Korea Credit Information Services civil complaint center," after which a representative requests personal information or asks the victim to install a specific application. Korea Credit Information Services has reported this incident to the police for investigation and announced that it will take strict measures against voice phishing crimes involving impersonation of the institution. KCIS also emphasized, "Korea Credit Information Services does not handle identity theft report intake, nor does it register, delete, or correct credit information without the consent of the data subject."

A KCIS official stated, "If you receive a call instructing you to contact Korea Credit Information Services for identity theft reporting or blocking credit information access by someone claiming to be an administrative agency official, do not call the number provided and report it immediately." The official also urged, "If you receive a suspicious call, please report it to the police (112), the Integrated Response Team for Telecommunications Financial Fraud (1394), or the Financial Supervisory Service (1332)."

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