Korea unveils measures to combat phishing scams

[Photo by Yonhap]

The South Korean government unveiled comprehensive measures to crack down on phishing scams and prevent their escalation into spams and illegal private finance as the damage from phishing scams increase despite previous government efforts.

Minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination Bang Ki-sun announced various countermeasures to help the public easily detect phishing scams on Monday after a cabinet meeting, calling these scams and illegal private finance “organized and vicious” crimes.

Phone number owners will initially receive notification texts if their numbers are used to send over 50 illegal messages by someone else. Messages sent from overseas with mobile phones using the overseas roaming function will include a notice indicating this status. Text messages from public and financial institutions will be marked with a safety mark.

There will also be measures to prevent the use of burner phones and bank accounts. ID photo verification will be strengthened, and all related phone numbers will be blocked when a spoofed caller ID is detected. The maximum number of lines that can be registered under one name will be reduced to 6 from 36, and the restriction period for new subscriptions after one new subscription will be extended to 180 days from 30 days. Facial recognition-based identity verification for account opening will be reinforced to curb burner accounts, increasing the number of financial institutions using this method to 39 from 24.

The government will also simplify response steps to phishing scams by implementing a one-stop response system, enabling necessary actions to be easily processed simultaneously. As a remedy for victims, payments from any accounts used for fraud will be suspended under the revised telecommunication fraud compensation law.

The government additionally plans to strengthen penalties and expand victim protection for any illegal financial activities by applying not only the loan business-related law but also laws related to criminal organizations, stalking crime punishment, and violence. The government will seek the maximum legal penalty for leaders of illegal private finance organizations and revise case handling standards, while seeking amendments to telecom-related laws to provide clear references for blocking and punishing phone numbers used in illegal debt collection and private finance crimes.

To eradicate phishing scams, the government aims to increase the detection rate of overseas criminal organizations via international joint investigations and expand extradition of these criminals to Korea.