Chungnam Issues Warning to Profit Companies for Misusing Foreign Resident Interpretation Services

[Asia Economy (Hongseong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Chungnam Province has issued warnings to companies that are profiting by misusing free interpretation services provided to foreign residents.

On the 17th, according to the province and the Chungnam Foreign Resident Integrated Support Call Center (hereafter Call Center), it was recently confirmed that a private interpretation app company unlawfully used the free interpretation service as a profit-making business without the Call Center's consent.

The company induced users to subscribe as paid members upon installing the app and automatically connected users to the Call Center when they used the interpretation service.

This was discovered on the 11th when a user requested interpretation through the interpretation app to the Call Center.

In response, the province disseminated this information to 15 cities and counties to prevent harm to foreign residents and took measures to promote awareness among multicultural families and foreign residents.

Currently, the Call Center is posting a notice on its homepage stating “All interpretation services are provided free of charge” and is revising the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) message to inform users that the interpretation service is free.

In particular, the province plans to proceed with legal action against the company based on consultations with lawyers, citing related penal provisions such as obstruction of business and the Information and Communications Protection Act.

The Call Center was established in 2017 with support from the province and Cheonan City. Since its opening, the Call Center has provided interpretation services in 16 languages and offers free consultation services in medical, daily legal, and financial fields to foreign residents.

Yoon Yeon-han, head of the Call Center, said, “Considering the evolving environment of voice phishing and smishing in various forms recently, we will strengthen monitoring to prevent similar damages from occurring in the future.”