Sharp Increase in Resident Registration Change Applications... 44% Are Victims of Voice Phishing

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Cases of applying for resident registration number changes due to property damage or threats to life have significantly increased.

In particular, it was found that 4 out of 10 applicants for resident registration number changes sought to change their numbers after falling victim to voice phishing.

According to the 'Resident Registration Number Change Committee Operation Performance' submitted by Lee Hyung-seok, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea (Gwangju Buk-gu Eul), to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, since the resident registration number change system was implemented on May 30, 2017, a total of 4,080 applications have been made over the past four years up to this year.

The resident registration number change is processed by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s Resident Registration Number Change Committee, which receives applications and decides whether to approve them. Both the number of applications and approval rates have been rapidly increasing each year.

For example, the number of applications for resident registration number changes was 641 in 2019, but increased 1.8 times to 1,127 in 2020.

The approval rate also rose from 77.8% in 2019 (464 approvals out of 596 cases reviewed) to 83.1% in 2020 (817 approvals out of 983 cases reviewed).

Regarding the reasons for applying for resident registration number changes, cases seeking to change their numbers after voice phishing damage were the most common at 1,794 cases (43.9%).

Following that were identity theft with 644 cases (15.8%), domestic violence with 491 cases (12%), injury and threats such as dating violence with 302 cases (7.4%), and sexual violence with 128 cases (3.1%).

The increase in applications for resident registration number changes due to voice phishing damage is closely related to the annual rise in both the number of victims and the amount of damage.

According to statistics from the National Police Agency, the number of voice phishing incidents increased by 85%, from 17,040 cases in 2016 to 31,681 cases in 2020, and the damage amount also increased fivefold from 146.8 billion KRW to 700 billion KRW during the same period.