Mobile phishing or SMS phishing, also known as Smishing cases are on the rise at a faster clip. (image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Oct. 23 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of smishing or SMS phishing has skyrocketed over the past three years, a whopping 210-fold increase during the period.
In 2010, when a reported case of smishing first appeared, there was only one such case in the nation. In 2013, however, the number of the smartphone-based fraudulent activities had soared, reaching 2,351 cases in total, according to a report by Congressman Yu Seung-hee (New Politics Alliance for Democracy) on October 22.
Smishing is a form of criminal activity using cell phone text messages that deliver malignant codes linked to a website URL, as a bait to induce people to divulge their personal information.
The malicious application attacks a smartphone to steal personal information in the phone by pilfering authentication SMSs when the person uses an e-commerce payment service.
The cumulative number of reported cases of malicious mobile (or SMS) smishing reached a total of 5,532 as of late September which tracked the whole cases happened over the last three years.
Far more worrisome is that an overwhelming number of smishing cases have belonged to such risky types of being vulnerable to financial crimes, such as a possible fraudulent money transaction, which accounted for a staggering 99.3 percent of the total smishing cases.
As the cyber crimes are on the rise, a series of preemtive or preventive measures against it have been released, largely by the governmet agencies. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, for example, distributed in May free-of-charge “SClean,” an application which the agency developed would prevent instances smishing or SMS phishing. SClean is a compound word for “smishing” and “cleaner.”
The application is designed to shut off the apps that have been confirmed to carry malignant codes, and brings a warning message up on the screen that notifies the user of possible threats of personal information leakage and smishing, when the user clicks on to a website URL from smishing text.
By Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
