"Mom, My Screen Is Cracked" Voice Phishing Targets Vulnerable Women in Their 50s and 60s

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[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] It has been found that people in their 50s to 60s, especially women, are vulnerable to 'family impersonation' voice phishing scams.

On the 11th, KB Kookmin Bank analyzed customer center financial fraud consultation data and found that voice phishing crimes exploit life cycle characteristics by age group.

Various methods were attempted depending on customer characteristics. Elderly customers, who are the main targets of voice phishing, were more vulnerable to the 'messenger phishing' method, which involves impersonating family or acquaintances to induce transfers to mule accounts.

Voice phishing patterns were categorized as ▲family impersonation ▲loan fraud ▲institution impersonation ▲courier company impersonation ▲wedding invitation scams.

Analyzing 1,423 victims of family impersonation, women (59%) were relatively more vulnerable than men (41%). By age group, those in their 50s and 60s (70%) suffered the most damage. Among men, those in their 60s (43%) were most frequently victimized, while among women, those in their 50s (40%) were most affected.

Customers in their 20s and 30s also experienced more cases of damage compared to other age groups due to personal information theft caused by installing hacking applications through 'fake payment texts' or 'courier company impersonation texts.'

It was found that methods exploiting victims' psychological weaknesses to induce account transfers or to steal personal information by linking to 'malicious app installations (smishing)' or 'phishing websites' are prevalent. The scale of voice phishing damage is also continuously increasing. According to the National Police Agency, the amount lost to voice phishing last year was 774.4 billion KRW, an 11% increase from the previous year. In particular, messenger phishing and institution impersonation accounted for 90% of the total damage amount.

KB Kookmin Bank blocks impersonation texts at the source by using the KB authentication mark when sending customer notification texts and through the whitelist of mobile carriers (official phone numbers used by financial companies for sending texts). The bank also operates voice phishing response programs, such as applying malicious app detection functions when running the KB Star Banking app.

A KB Kookmin Bank official stated, "Through the ongoing ‘Future Contact Center (FCC)’ construction project, we plan to build a monitoring system that detects voice phishing damage consultations received at the customer center in real time and issues proactive alerts."