Police Report Decline in Phishing Crimes Starting October... “Determined to Reverse Crime Trends”

[Financial News] With the establishment of the Joint Response Team for Telecommunications Financial Fraud and increased pressure by the police on overseas organizations, phishing crimes have started to decline.
Park Seong-ju, head of the National Office of Investigation at the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA), stated at a regular briefing on the 24th, “After launching the Joint Response Team for Telecommunications Financial Fraud in September and repatriating a group of new phishing scam suspects from the Kingdom of Cambodia in early October, we have confirmed a downward trend in phishing crimes.”
Specifically, the number of reported phishing crimes dropped by 38%, from 43,000 in September to around 26,000 in October. Based on actual incidents, voice phishing (vishing) originating from China decreased by about 25% and new types of phishing crimes from the Kingdom of Cambodia and Southeast Asia fell by approximately 32% in the four weeks before and after the response team’s launch. As a result, the number of incidents, which peaked at about 5,500 in July, dropped to 3,300 last month.
Park added, “The amount of damages had been rising from 197.3 billion won in January to about 240 billion won in July, but this figure decreased to 178.4 billion won in October. With the launch of the response team, we increased the number of hotline operators, enabling 24/7 reporting and consultation. As a result, the response rate rose to 98.2%, and the number of suspicious phishing reports and blocked cases surged by 432%, from 2,898 in January to 15,477 in October.”
Starting today, the KNPA will implement the Emergency Blocking System in cooperation with the Joint Response Team for Telecommunications Financial Fraud, the three major mobile carriers, and Samsung Electronics. This system enables phone numbers used in vishing to be blocked within 10 minutes, and is expected to prevent even more victims.
Park emphasized, “As of the first week of November, the weekly number of incidents, victims, and damages continues to decline. We will focus on continuously blocking criminal methods, repatriating overseas suspects—especially from the Kingdom of Cambodia, where effective results have been seen—and conducting joint crackdowns with foreign investigative agencies. We are committed to reversing the phishing crime trend this year and minimizing harm to the public.”
[email protected] Jang Yu-ha Reporter