Spam texts in decline, but robocalls spike

The government’s move to get tough on spam text messages has resulted in a sharp rise in nuisance calls, showed recent data.

According to data from the Korea Internet and Security Agency submitted Friday to Mun Mi-ock of the opposition The Minjoo Party of Korea, Koreans reported up to 18 million unwanted calls and messages to the agency this year, as of the end of August 2016, the agency said. 

In 2013, the figure was nearly 33 million, but fell to 22 million in 2014 and 14 million in 2015, the data showed.

However, the number of reported telemarketing calls has spiked, with 10 million cases this year, close to the total for last year and 14 times more than the 880,000 cases reported in 2013.

On the other hand, advertisements through email and text messages, dropped drastically, with 5 million reported this year, down from 21 million in 2013.

The new anti-spam legislation in 2014 seems to have contributed to the phenomenon. The amendment to the Information Communications Network Act allows the distribution of commercial marketing only if agreed upon by online users, strengthening controls on commercial text messages and emails.

But businesses and telemarketers make unwanted calls a lot more often as an alternative, according to people with knowledge of the mobile communication industry.

Marketers often use robocalls -- automated telephone calls that deliver a recorded message -- and as a result they are able to avoid penalties, an official of the Korea Internet and Security Agency said.

“When people answer prerecorded or live telemarketing calls, they get frustrated and hang up,” the official said. “But one must submit a record file when reporting to the authority. It is an extra burden for ordinary people.”

By Bak Se-hwan (sh@heraldcorp.com)