"Please register your address for Chuseok gifts"—a terrifying moment after carelessly clicking... Chuseok voice phishing rampant

[Financial News]Your Chuseok gift has arrived. Please register your address now.Although the content of the text message is commonly seen when exchanging holiday gifts, carelessly clicking on it without checking the sender or the message content can result in significant damage. This is because voice phishing crimes are rampant ahead of the Chuseok holiday, when communication between family and acquaintances and gift deliveries increase.
According to data received from the Korean National Police Agency by People Power Party Rep. Kim Ye-ji on the 24th, the amount of damage from voice phishing in the month including Chuseok doubled from 51.6 billion won in September 2021 to 101.1 billion won in October of last year. While the number of incidents itself increased by 9.3% from 1,812 to 1,981, the amount of damage surged by a much higher 95.9%. The average amount of damage per case also increased by 78.9%, from approximately 28.5 million won in 2021 to approximately 51 million won last year.
The increase in voice phishing damage appears to be due to a rise in fraudulent calls around the holidays, such as those sending URLs to install malicious apps used for voice phishing under titles like "delivery address error" or "Chuseok gift address registration," or using bait like "low-interest holiday loans."
Looking at the damage status by region, as of last year, Seoul suffered 516 incidents and 32.4 billion won in damages, and South Gyeonggi suffered 402 incidents and 17.2 billion won in damages, accounting for half of the total damage nationwide.
As voice phishing crimes based overseas run rampant, the number of voice phishing offenders being repatriated to Korea has also been increasing recently. The number of overseas voice phishing syndicate members repatriated decreased from 544 in 2023 to 199 in 2024, but rose again to 261 last year, and recorded 305 through August of this year.
Representative Kim Ye-ji stated, "We must track down the links of the crime to the very end, extending from overseas ringleaders and call center organizations to domestic recruiters, telecommunications operators, and providers of dummy accounts, and strengthen the recovery of criminal proceeds." She added, "In particular, the police and financial and telecommunications agencies must establish a more comprehensive prevention system to ensure that citizens vulnerable to financial fraud, such as the elderly, do not suffer damage during the holiday season."
[email protected] Kim Hee-sun Reporter