Increasing Voice Phishing Damage – Young People
Increasing Voice Phishing Damage – Young People
  • Reporter Yang Seo-Yeon
  • 승인 2023.05.19 10:05
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▲Voice phishing image / MS TODAY
▲Voice phishing image / MS TODAY

 Voice phishing has been mainly targeted to the elderly who do not know much about finances. However, in recent years, the amount of voice phishing damage among young people in their 20s has continued to increase. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) recently released data titled “The Status and Key Characteristics of Voice Phishing Damage in 2022.” According to this, the amount of voice phishing damage continued to decrease. However, the amount of damage in the 20s age group increased from 6.6 billion KRW in 2020 to 9.2 billion KRW last year 2022, and the proportion of the affected age group also increased from 2.8% to 6.4%.
 An official from the Korean National Police Agency (KNPA) said, “The effect of preventing damage to middle-aged people has increased as promotional activities for voice phishing crimes have increased, but the damage to young people in their 20s or younger who have relatively little social experience seems to have increased significantly.” In addition, the FSS said, “Recently, voice phishing crimes have been actively committed through Internet banks, and young people are more likely to be exposed to crimes as they mainly use Internet banks. Voice phishing techniques using messengers that young people are familiar with are often mobilized, so it is necessary to be careful to avoid problems.”
 The KNPA estimates that the change in the status of the victims of age is due to the increase in the number of institutional voice phishing crimes. Voice phishing crimes are divided into two types. The first one is institutional crimes that deceive victims by impersonating investigative agencies or FSS employees. The second one is loan fraud-type crimes that pretend to borrow by impersonating financial institution employees. According to a data released by the KNPA, the number of institutional crimes has increased steadily from 6,221 in 2018, to 8,930 in 2022.
 The government is coming up with various measures to prevent such a surge in voice phishing damage. Bang Moon-kyu, the minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination (OPC) said, “We will continue to promote voice phishing applications so that the public can learn and understand how to prevent voice phishing.” The government’s countermeasures are important, but it is necessary to pay attention to avoid damage by not clicking on the link of the message sent to a number that we do not know or installing an unidentified application.