Spam Tempting with 'Illegal Gambling' Continues to Ramp Up in 2019

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] 'Spam' that encourages illegal gambling was found to have been the most rampant again last year.

According to the 2019 user-reported spam statistics released on the 21st by KT Group affiliate WhoWho & Company through the spam blocking application 'WhoWho,' a total of about 21.61 million spam cases were reported, an increase of 33% (about 5.3 million cases) compared to the previous year. By type, 'illegal gambling' ranked first for three consecutive years with about 6.718 million cases. This was followed by 'loan solicitation' (about 4.53 million cases) and 'telemarketing' (about 2.25 million cases).

Among the reported phone numbers, mobile phone numbers with the 010 prefix accounted for 47% of the total, increasing by about 5 percentage points compared to the previous year. In particular, the mobile phone proportion for 'stock & investment' and 'illegal gambling' spam types reached 92% and 83%, respectively.

The time periods with the highest number of spam reports during the day were mainly around 1 PM and 6 PM, and by day of the week, Friday was when spam was most rampant.

Heo Tae-beom, CEO of WhoWho & Company, said, "During holiday seasons, spam damage disguised as registered mail or parcel return notification messages increases, and spam containing internet addresses (URLs) in messages from unverified sources continues to be detected. We recommend using services like the WhoWho app to prevent elderly people from falling victim to increasingly sophisticated tactics."