[While You Were Careless] Part 2. Citizens on the Move, I am a Phishing Scammer
With the 'Untact' Trend, Crimes Also Go Contactless
Exploiting Social Issues Like Disaster Relief Funds
When Methods Are Exposed, New Types Reappear
Messenger Phishing, Bodycam Phishing, Voice Phishing Increasing Annually
[Asia Economy Reporters Seongyun Song and Jeongyun Lee] "Customer Seo ㅇㅇ, your address is incorrect, so the Lunar New Year delivery item has been returned. Please check." During the recent Lunar New Year holiday, office worker Seo, who gave up returning to his hometown and stayed home, received a text message on his smartphone. The message included this phrase along with a link to a website. Seo hesitated before clicking the link. After immediately searching online, he realized it was a smishing attempt and deleted the message.
The arrival of the 'Untact' (non-face-to-face) era has changed not only ordinary daily life but also the methods of various crimes, which are increasingly shifting to non-face-to-face approaches and becoming more sophisticated. During the period for applying for disaster relief funds due to COVID-19, smishing texts impersonating government agencies were sent, and during holiday seasons, smishing messages disguised as parcel delivery tracking or holiday greetings were also used to exploit social issues for criminal purposes. Techniques such as impersonating family members using stolen personal information to request PIN numbers for purchasing cultural gift certificates or gift cards, or sending fake links demanding identity verification by claiming that membership information on certain sites has been changed, are frequently used. There are also cases where criminals impersonate financial institutions to install specific apps and then take control of the victim’s mobile phone.
When police investigations and media reports reveal criminal methods, new techniques emerge in response. As the body-cam phishing method became widely known, recently, phishing that fabricates sexual crime allegations that the victim did not commit to threaten them has appeared.
Crimes conducted non-face-to-face, such as telephone financial fraud (voice phishing) and messenger-based phishing crimes, are increasing every year. According to the Police University’s Institute of Police Policy’s ‘Security Network 2021’ report, cybercrime increased by 29.5% in the first nine months of last year compared to the same period the previous year. Police statistics show that ‘messenger phishing,’ which replaced traditional voice phishing, occurred 2,756 times in the second half of 2019 (July?December) when data collection began. Last year, it increased more than fourfold to 12,402 cases. The arrest rates were 29% (811 cases) in 2019 and 23% (2,873 cases) last year. ‘Body-cam phishing,’ which sends malware disguised as video calls, also more than doubled from 1,234 cases in 2017 to 2,583 cases last year. However, arrests during the same period were 334 and 519 cases, respectively, showing that enforcement has not kept pace with the increase. Traditional voice phishing, classified as an old method, still reaches around 30,000 cases annually.
While the elderly were the main targets in the past, the diversification of methods means that victims now span all age groups. Among voice phishing victims over the past five years, middle-aged groups such as those in their 50s (29%) and 40s (24%) accounted for the largest proportions, while those under 20 and in their 30s made up 17% and 14%, respectively.
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