[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] "We have extracted only the latest DB. We will take responsibility for the 2022 profits."
On one Telegram channel, sellers posted promotional messages in real-time, with thousands to tens of thousands of related posts appearing daily. The advertisements included phrases such as "Only the latest DB has been extracted. We will prove it with quality," and "Every week, we bring new DBs to serve the business owners. Whatever you want, whatever you are looking for, we will repay you with quality that meets your expectations." On Telegram and various social networking services (SNS), databases containing personal information are openly sold. Sellers create and advertise DBs containing various personal information such as names, mobile phone numbers, and dates of birth. The illegal market for buying and selling personal information operates 24 hours a day.
Producing, distributing, and trading such DBs violates the Personal Information Protection Act and the Information and Communications Network Act. Depending on the amount of information contained in the DB, personal information is traded at prices ranging from tens to thousands of won per record. Leaked personal information is used in spam texts promoting loans or illegal gambling. Due to the sensitive nature of the information, it is also exploited in crimes such as telephone financial fraud (voice phishing).
According to the Personal Information Protection Commission, the number of reported personal information leaks last year was 9,911,000 cases. After recording 7,674,000 cases in 2017, the number peaked in 2018 (13,551,000 cases) and 2019 (14,040,000 cases). Although there has been a decreasing trend for two consecutive years since 2020 (12,003,000 cases), about 10 million cases of personal information leaks occur annually. In comparison, the fines for personal information leaks over five years from 2017 to 2021 amounted to only 7 billion won, and penalties were just 3.5 billion won.
As leaked personal information is exploited in voice phishing crimes, the police have included illegal distribution of personal information as a method of voice phishing crimes. Although voice phishing crimes are also decreasing annually, about 30,000 cases occur each year. A police official stated, "While investigating telephone financial fraud, we confirmed that besides the four major methods, there are other methods such as malicious applications (apps) and illegal distribution of personal information, so we expanded and reorganized the scope of crime methods," adding, "We plan to actively respond in cooperation with related organizations such as the Personal Information Protection Commission."
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