Phishing Damage Reaches All-Time High of 800 Billion Won This Year... Police Launch Large-Scale Crackdown

Special crackdown for five months until January next year... Reward for reporting up to 500 million won

Phishing Crime Incidence and Damage by Year [Provided by the National Police Agency. Reproduction and database prohibition]

(Seoul=Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Dong-hwan = The police announced on the 31st that they will launch a large-scale special crackdown on phishing crimes for five months from September 1st to January 31st of next year.

From January to July this year, the number of phishing crimes, including voice phishing and smishing, was 16,561, and the damages amounted to 799.2 billion won. These figures represent an increase of 14% and 95% respectively compared to the same period last year.

According to the National Police Agency, this is the highest damage amount in history for a seven-month period. The figure is not significantly different from last year's total phishing damage of 952.5 billion won.

Other phishing crimes, such as investment guidance rooms (3,939 cases, 343.8 billion won in damages), romance scams (1,163 cases, 70.5 billion won in damages), and no-show scams (2,892 cases, 41.4 billion won in damages), are also at serious levels.

The National Police Agency stated, "We will concentrate police investigative capabilities for five months," and announced that they will strictly crack down on domestic and international phishing crime organizations, as well as money laundering, burner phones, and illegal bank accounts.

This crackdown is part of the comprehensive countermeasures against phishing announced by the government on the 28th.

The police will increase the number of dedicated investigative personnel to about 400 nationwide and establish dedicated phishing crime investigation units and teams in the Seoul, Busan, Gwangju, Gyeonggi Nambu, and Chungnam police agencies.

Park Sung-joo, head of the National Investigation Headquarters of the National Police Agency, said, "We will concentrate all of the police's investigative capabilities to conduct a strong crackdown to eradicate phishing crimes," and urged, "As the reward for reporting was significantly increased to a maximum of 500 million won in July this year, we ask for courageous reporting and tips." Yonhap News