Financial Regulator Cracks Down on Phone Scams

The Financial Supervisory Service said Thursday that it has been examining bank accounts suspected of links to voice phishing. If money is transferred to a bank account showing no recent transactions, a bank employee checks it immediately, and if the money turns out to have been extracted by fraud, payment is suspended right away. The owner of the account is prevented from withdrawing or transferring money from their accounts at other banks as well.

Banks found 20 suspected scam accounts out of 55 they had earmarked since Monday. The financial regulator will decrease the transfer limit for bank accounts that have been dormant for the past year as part of efforts to prevent voice phishing. The accounts will be allowed to transfer only W700,000 (US1$=W1,266) at a time, down from W6 million, and their daily limit will also decrease to W700,000 from W30 million. However, customers can request an increase to the previous level.

According to the National Policy Agency, the number of phone scams had increased 78 percent to 2,908 on-year as of March this year and losses surged 70 percent to W27.3 billion, with daily losses averaging W300 million.