[Celebrity Impersonation Scam] 95% of Phishing Exploiting Fame Occurs on YouTube

②Inducing Joining of Reading Rooms through Celebrity Impersonation Ads
Encouraging Loans to Poor Commoners
'Basic Fraud Prevention Act' Puts a Brake

"I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. At that time, my daughter Ra-eul was just learning to walk. (Omitted) After completing ovarian cancer treatment, I started focusing on stock investment and earned over 10 billion KRW through stock investments by 2023."

Recently, on social networking services (SNS), a post spread claiming that broadcaster Hong Jin-kyung made a fortune through stock investments after battling illness. The account name was "Hong Jin-kyung," and a photo of Hong Jin-kyung wearing a hat was set as the profile picture. It appeared as if Hong Jin-kyung herself wrote about her experience. However, upon closer inspection, a small "advertisement" label could be seen. The post was a fake advertisement that illegally used the celebrity's portrait rights.

Hong Jin-kyung's agency, Vice President Bae Seong-min of TN Entertainment, lamented, "Fake advertisements using celebrities' portrait rights keep appearing on major platforms such as Instagram and YouTube." He added, "Since last year, these advertisement posts have continuously been uploaded, and despite efforts to find solutions, there is no clear method." He further stated, "Hong Jin-kyung has no connection with any stock-related leading chat rooms."

"Investment Scams" Even Encouraging Loans

Phishing crimes impersonating celebrities are happening somewhere right now. The criminal method is as follows: They lure victims through advertisements on social networking services such as YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook to enter "leading chat rooms." The phishing gang kindly asks about the victim's well-being to build trust. After gathering personal information such as occupation and residence, they estimate the scam amount and urge investment. Initially, they show how much they have earned to gain trust. Then, after the victim invests a small amount, they promise profits exceeding 3 to 5 times. It was revealed that they even induced victims to take out loans to invest.

[Image source=Pixabay]

Phishers use fake advertisements impersonating celebrities to induce clicks. Considering the number of views and exposure frequency, the marketing costs likely amount to tens of billions of KRW. Scam advertisement posts featuring celebrities like Yoo Jae-suk and Lee Boo-jin have nearly reached 500,000 views. Celebrity impersonation phishing crimes on SNS, occurring in various scales since last year, surged sharply in the fourth quarter of last year.

Han Sang-jun, a lawyer at Daegun Law Firm, said, "Since the public offering investment scam case in September last year, incidents of celebrities being exploited have increased," and "especially from December last year to January this year, there was a sharp rise." The "Association for Solving Celebrity Impersonation Online Phishing Crimes" (hereafter Yusamo) estimated that "95% of celebrity impersonation phishing crimes occurred on YouTube."

Serious Spread of Damage Through YouTube

Victims unanimously say they trusted posts exposed as advertisements on YouTube, which they frequently use. One lawyer pointed out, "Platform operators should block false impersonation advertisements from the start." He added, "Since last year, many victims have suffered scams through YouTube ads, and although this has been reported to Google Korea, which operates YouTube, filtering is currently ineffective."

The lawyer said it is reasonable to assume most victims were scammed through YouTube. He said, "If you ask victims 'Where were you scammed?' instead of that, if you ask 'Did you see it on YouTube?' almost all say yes," adding, "The number of scam consultations has increased more than fourfold since early this year."

Google, which operates YouTube, announced that it has hurriedly formed a dedicated task force (TF) and plans to update advertising policies. They intend to invest extensive resources and continue large-scale investments in advanced technology to quickly detect and block advertisements that impersonate celebrities using deepfake (AI-generated image and video manipulations) technology to deceive users.

[Photo by Pixabay]

Major platform operators recognize the seriousness of the crime and have expressed intentions to prepare countermeasures. South Korea's largest portal, Naver, is considering promptly establishing channels on its website, reporting center, and customer service homepage where users can report damages related to celebrity impersonation advertisements. However, the industry points out that there are no immediate effective measures to prevent scam damages. While platform operators discuss solutions, victims may continue to occur.

Anti-Scam Basic Act "Pending"

The police announced earlier this month that they will strengthen investigative capabilities by establishing a dedicated investigation team for major malicious scam crimes. Typically, when a report is received, an investigation proceeds after obtaining a warrant for bank transaction statements. However, most crimes involve "dapo" (proxy) bank accounts. Those who lent their names to open these accounts mostly deny knowing anything. While confessing to higher-ups could lead to catching phishers, this is rare.

[Image source=Pixabay]

A police official said, "The 'Anti-Scam Basic Act,' which requests payment suspension for scam crimes targeting unspecified many, is currently pending in the National Assembly." This bill includes fundamental solutions such as establishing an integrated scam reporting response center under the National Police Agency, setting up a scam information analysis center, disclosing personal information of specific scam criminals, issuing damage warnings and alerts, blocking suspicious phone numbers, and allowing undercover investigations by the police in specific scam crime investigations.

The police are striving for the bill's passage, but it has been stalled due to disagreements with the Ministry of Justice and the Court Administration Office. The Ministry of Justice and the Court Administration Office argue that the effectiveness of establishing a separate organization is unclear and that disclosing personal information about scam criminals may infringe on human rights, so caution is necessary.