"New Year's Money at CU"... Warning for 50,000 Won Smishing Scams During Seollal

"New Year's money is at CU, CU convenience stores are giving 50,000 won to everyone as a Lunar New Year event. Please refer to the homepage."

As the Lunar New Year holiday approaches, smishing disguised as convenience stores, targeting personal information under the pretense of New Year's money events, is rampant, requiring special caution.

Smishing message impersonating CU.

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According to the distribution industry on the 2nd, text messages impersonating CU were sent to regular mobile phone numbers from early morning. Upon verification, CU is not conducting any related events. This is a typical ‘smishing’ message that lures recipients to click links by tempting them with cash, then requests personal information or connects to phishing sites.

Recently, with the increase in the use of text coupons or SNS gifting as part of New Year's greetings, link smishing has also surged significantly. The monthly voice phishing damage amount disclosed by the National Police Agency on the 30th of last month was 48.3 billion won in November last year and 56.1 billion won in December. Compared to the average monthly voice phishing damage of 34 billion won from January to October last year, which had decreased by about 28% compared to the previous year, this is a steep increase. In this regard, the National Police Agency and the Personal Information Protection Commission have issued a smishing warning disguised as New Year's greetings.

Recently, voice phishing criminal organizations mainly use the method of sending mass bait messages such as parcel delivery, obituary notices, and National Health Insurance Service messages to install malicious apps (smishing). Once the malicious app is installed, all files such as messages, contacts, and photos are extracted, exposing personal information to criminals. Voice phishing organizations use the obtained information and functions like ‘call interception’ to impersonate police, prosecutors, and Financial Supervisory Service employees, extorting large sums of money from victims over a long period.

To prevent smishing damage, messages from unknown sources should be suspected, and internet addresses should not be clicked. It is safest to delete messages suspected of smishing. If damage occurs due to impersonation emails or text messages, report it to the National Police Agency (Cyber Safety Keeper, emergency report 112 or civil complaint consultation 182). It is also important to inform people around you of the damage to prevent secondary harm.

A CU representative stated, "We have reported the phishing suspicious text messages impersonating our event to the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA)," and added, "We are also preparing to guide customers and franchise owners to prevent any possible damage."

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