[2020 National Audit] "Google Must Refund Charges Made Through Account Hacking"

Jo Seung-rae, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker

[Asia Economy Reporter Bu Aeri] Criticism has been raised that Google is responding passively to refund requests for payment details due to consumers' account hacking.

On the 22nd, Cho Seung-rae, a member of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, stated, "Many complaints have been received at my office saying that refund requests to Google due to Google account hacking and ID theft were either rejected or refunds were received only after more than a month."

The main damage reported to the lawmaker's office involved consumers discovering payment details they did not make and reporting the damage to customer service, but Google refused refunds, saying it was difficult to find evidence that the user did not make the payments.

According to Representative Cho, victims presented evidence such as login records from overseas locations like Taiwan and devices or Windows login histories that they did not use. However, Google refused refunds, suggesting that family members, relatives, or acquaintances might have used the accounts.

Representative Cho also mentioned that Google eventually provided refunds to some victims who persistently requested them.

Representative Cho criticized, "We requested related data from Google to verify the exact scale of the damage, but Google refused to submit the data citing trade secrets. It is problematic that a global IT company like Google manages account security so carelessly, and it is a very irresponsible attitude for the company to shift responsibility onto consumers by claiming they cannot distinguish whether it was hacking or not."