Korea, China to clamp down on voice phishing, fakes

Last year, a 31-year-old office worker surnamed Kim received a phone call from the post office that she had a parcel to receive but there were a few problems. Then suddenly the phone hung up.

She then made a phone call to the post office to get her item, where a staff worker informed her that she had been duped by voice phishing scammers.

“They make money by inducing you to make extra-expensive international calls. They sometimes demand money to receive non-existing parcels,” Kim said, recalling what she was told by the postal worker.

Another Internet user in Seoul recently complained that his mother had been duped by a phone call claiming that her son had been in a traffic accident.

“A man told her that she needed to send him about 20 million won ($17,800) right away for me to get proper surgery,” said the man with the user ID “pdso” on an online bulletin board.

“Mum, who was horrified by the idea of losing me, sent 20 million won, pretty much all she had, to the swindlers right away. When I came home later that day, without a scar, she collapsed, then cried her heart out,” he said.

He reported the case to the police, but officers said the chances of his mother getting back the money were very slim since many of the phone calls are made from abroad and all her money had been withdrawn already.

According to the prosecution, there have been 26,000 cases reported in the past five years concerning voice phishing, the criminal practice of using the telephone system to gain access to personal and financial information from randomly selected people.

The practice has cost more than 260 billion won. Those duped are mostly elderly citizens, who lack information about the latest scam trends, or housewives who are vulnerable to news of their family being in danger.

As their methods become more sophisticated ― the latest reported is having a man or boy screaming through the telephone and claiming a kidnap ― the number of victims and amount of money stolen is expected to increase, investigators warned.

Since many of the phone calls are assumed to be made from China ― prosecutors believe about 1,500 conmen have fled to China and continue their crimes through international phone calls ― there have been mounting calls for the necessity of international collaboration.

The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office formed an agreement with the Chinese Public Security Bureau on Jan. 14 for joint crackdowns on such criminals. Under the plan, Koreans will refer to their Chinese counterpart in tracking down the whereabouts of swindlers and request their extradition.

The two sides have also agreed to cooperate on fights against drug trafficking, terrorism, gambling and the violation of intellectual rights, among other crimes.

Another issue of cooperation is tackling counterfeit luxury goods, a problem which has given both countries notoriety for being “lands of fakes.” The counterfeit market is estimated to take up 10-15 percent of the whole luxury market.

“Now that the two countries have a shared understanding that voice phishing and fake goods have posed major blows to ordinary people’s lives, we will work on eradicating the crimes,” the prosecutors’ office said in a press release.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)