'One step ahead of scammers': Former police officer who caught 'Team Leader Kim Mi-young'—Woori Bank to fight financial fraud with specialists and AI

[Financial News] Woori Bank is strengthening its response to financial fraud, making “a leading bank in financial fraud prevention” its mid- to long-term vision. It plans to establish a dedicated team centered on former police officers and launch an artificial intelligence (AI) monitoring system this November to detect suspicious transactions early.

On the 12th, Woori Bank held a press briefing on financial fraud prevention at its headquarters in Jung District, Seoul, and announced its achievements in preventing financial fraud losses and its plans for future responses.
Woori Bank plans to strengthen its capacity to respond to financial fraud in three stages: building a foundation, expanding capabilities, and leading prevention. It will establish an AI-based detection system and specialized response teams, standardize detection and analysis work, and expand its pool of specialists, with the aim of embedding prevention capabilities throughout the bank.
In particular, Woori Bank will combine generative AI with telecommunications data to respond more quickly to new types of financial fraud. Moving beyond its existing detection system, which focuses on financial transaction data, the bank will build a next-generation FDS that broadly links data including its electronic financial system for detecting abnormal transactions (FDS), login information, product usage information, and risky-account information from ASAP, a platform for sharing and analyzing voice-phishing information.
Generative AI will analyze new types of financial fraud and unusual signs to help develop new detection scenarios and policies. Woori Bank plans to launch its new AI monitoring system this November and stabilize it by the end of the year.
In his opening remarks, Woori Bank President Jung Jin-wan said, “Preventing financial fraud protects not only customers' assets but also trust in the financial system, which is why we are pursuing it as a top management priority. Rather than stopping at helping customers after losses occur, we will further strengthen our preventive systems to spot warning signs one step ahead and block customers' money from reaching scammers.” He added, “Financial fraud prevention, like information security, must be addressed using specialized expertise. To bridge the gap between discussions inside and outside the bank and realities on the ground as we strengthen internal controls, we have brought in experts with investigative experience.”

Jeon Jae-hong, who gave the presentation, is a former police officer and the first financial fraud investigation expert recruited in the banking sector. After 24 years in the police force, he retired as a senior superintendent. He led efforts to apprehend the leadership, including the ringleader, of the first-generation voice-phishing ring known as “Team Leader Kim Mi-young,” and led investigations into overseas voice-phishing organizations.
Jeon stressed that specialist staff who can handle the work over the long term are needed to respond to increasingly sophisticated financial fraud schemes. “A dedicated department makes responsibilities clearer and raises expertise,” he said. “Phishing scammers spend their whole lives phishing, so the staff who respond to them also need to be embedded in the organization and specialized in this work for a systematic response to be possible.”
Woori Bank is bringing together investigative experience and expertise in financial transaction analysis, primarily through its Financial Fraud Prevention Department, which currently has 25 employees. Its work spans everything from analyzing criminal methods to responding to high-risk transactions and supporting branches. The bank plans to establish a dedicated team made up of former police officers and pursue a long-term roadmap for preventing financial fraud. Woori Bank is also stepping up its management of corporate mule accounts. It is taking preventive measures such as limiting transaction amounts on accounts held by defunct corporations and conducting on-site inspections at the premises of suspicious companies. As a result, the number of corporate mule accounts used by operating businesses fell by about 13%, from 472 in the first half of last year to 408 in the first half of this year.
Woori Bank plans to use AI to improve the speed and precision of financial fraud analysis. “We expect AI-enabled financial fraud to increase, so we will have to use AI ourselves to prevent it,” Jeon said. “We expect AI to complete in a short time tasks that would take people a long time to handle one by one, and to use accumulated data to analyze even areas we may not have thought of.”
[email protected] Lee Hyun-jung Reporter