(image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea reported 98,391 cases of “voice phishing” scams between 2014 and June this year, with most cases preying on ordinary people seeking emergency funds, a ruling party lawmaker said Monday, citing police data.
The data, submitted to Rep. Lee Jae-jung of the Democratic Party by the Korea Police Agency, also showed damage from voice phishing scams came to 960 billion won (US$861.75 million) during the reported period.
The number of voice phishing scam cases, which dwindled to 18,549 in 2015 and 17,040 in 2016 from 22,205 in 2014, soared to 24,259 last year.
In the January-June period of this year, the country reported 16,338 cases of such scams and 179.60 billion won in damage from them, up 53.7 percent and 70.8 percent, respectively, from the same period last year.
More than 72 percent of voice phishing scams preyed on people wishing to obtain loans for emergency uses. In such telephone frauds, criminals typically talk bank-account holders into transferring money to another account for fraudulent purposes.
Lee called for the police agency to provide the public with an extensive education on the prevention of such crimes and strengthen cooperation with foreign law enforcement bodies, as “those scams are committed mainly from foreign countries.”
(Yonhap)
