Damage cases of voice phishing are continuously occurring. "Phishing" is a newly coined term that combines ‘private data’ and fishing,’ meaning ‘picking up personal information through telecommunication means.’

In other words, voice phishing is a kind of fraud crime that occurs in the financial sector over the phone. Following voice phishing, "messenger phishing" is also continually on the rise. It is another fraud crime where money is required to be transferred through a messenger app.

In the January-September period of 2020, the total number and the amount of damage caused by messenger phishing was 6,799 cases and 29.7 billion won respectively, up 14.6% and 25.3% from the previous year.

While KakaoTalk has been the most frequently used messenger form for messenger phishing, the number of damage cases that require personal information by impersonating someone through SMS has recently increased rapidly, as much as voice phishing.

If family members and acquaintances request money and personal information through text messages or messenger apps, you must check whether they are really your family members or acquaintances through phone calls.

If it is difficult to contact them due to cell phone failure or you lost what they said, we should suspect a phishing attempt. In this case we should stop communicating and proceed with more caution. If the damage has already occurred, report it immediately so that there is no further damage.

L.L.F reporter Su-hyeon Heo