(image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Oct. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Contrary to popular belief, young people were found to have fallen prey to voice phishing scams more than senior citizens, data showed Tuesday.
According to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), those in their 20s and 30s lost 42.5 billion won (US$37.26 million) from this kind of phone fraud in the first half of the year, accounting for 24 percent of the total reported damages, while those in their 60s and older lost 35.1 billion won, or 19.8 percent.
People in their 40s and 50s made up 56.2 percent of all losses by losing 99.6 billion won in the January-June period, the data showed.
The watchdog did not provide the data on the number of voice phishing victims by age group, though it has said a total of 21,006 people fell prey to such fraudulent cases in the January-June period.
The vulnerability of the young folks is in part attributable to their lack of understanding, the watchdog said, citing its latest survey.
In the poll of 1,314 university students across the nation, 35.1 percent believed that “the prosecution and the FSS would protect their private assets in a safe fashion,” an untrue statement that many swindlers pretending to be the state prosecutor’s office use to exploit.
“Even collegians who are interested in financial matters turned out to have little knowledge about voice phishing scams,” the FSS said in a release. “Accordingly, we will further strive to raise their awareness by boosting promotion and education efforts.”
(Yonhap)
