Police, KB Kookmin Bank Honor 10 Citizens Who Prevented Voice-Phishing Scams with KB Kookmin Jikimi Award

[Financial News] Ten citizens who prevented voice-phishing losses or helped apprehend suspects received the KB Kookmin Jikimi Award.
The Korean National Police Agency said on the 16th that it held the fourth KB Kookmin Jikimi Award ceremony with KB Kookmin Bank on the 15th at the bank’s new building in Yeouido, Seoul.
The KB Kookmin Jikimi Award is presented to citizens who contribute to preventing telephone financial fraud and apprehending suspects. The Korean National Police Agency and KB Kookmin Bank have held the ceremony annually since signing an agreement in 2022 on preventing telephone financial fraud and eradicating related crimes.
This year’s recipients included 10 people, including nurses and telecom store managers. They helped prevent losses by identifying circumstances suspected to involve voice phishing and reporting them or cooperating with police investigations at work or in their daily lives. Each recipient received a certificate of appreciation from the commissioner of the Korean National Police Agency and 1 million won in appreciation money provided by KB Kookmin Bank.
In one case, a nurse saw a woman in her 60s who was hospitalized speaking on the phone for about an hour with someone impersonating an official from the Financial Supervisory Service. Suspecting voice phishing, the nurse reported it to 112, preventing 80 million won in the patient’s retirement savings from being taken.
A citizen who was asked on the street by a Taiwanese woman to hail a taxi noticed that her bag contained a large amount of cash and found it suspicious, so the citizen reported it to police. Police urgently arrested the suspect and recovered 160 million won in stolen funds.
A telecom store manager who operated a voice-phishing prevention store was also among the recipients. After asking a customer who had been deceived by a loan-refinancing voice-phishing scam and had visited the store to remove the SIM card why they wanted to do so, the manager suspected a crime, checked the customer’s phone, and reported the case to police. The manager’s actions helped prevent losses of 60 million won.
Oh Chang-bae, head of the National Police Agency Integrated Response Team for Telecommunication and Financial Fraud, said, "To prevent voice-phishing crimes, the efforts of investigative agencies are important, but so are the public’s attention to unusual signs in everyday life and their reports." He added, "I hope the cases of citizens who helped prevent losses through the KB Jikimi Award will become widely known and serve as an opportunity for people to make active reports and respond to such crimes."
Park Sun-hyun, vice president of KB Kookmin Bank’s Consumer Protection Group, said, "As voice-phishing methods become increasingly sophisticated, financial companies’ role in preventing financial consumers from suffering losses in advance is becoming even more important." Park added, "We will continue to enhance our systems for detecting and monitoring unusual transactions and strengthen proactive measures to protect customers’ assets."
[email protected] Kim Ye-ji Reporter