"Prevention Over Punishment" Supreme Prosecutors' Office and Banks Joint Seminar on Responding to Crimes Affecting Public Livelihood Held

Increase in Voice Phishing and Leading Room New Fraud
Supreme Prosecutors' Office Focuses on Prevention through Collaboration with Banks

The Supreme Prosecutors' Office held a 'Public-Private Joint Seminar to Explore Strengthened Measures Against Crimes Infringing on People’s Livelihoods' on the 22nd at the Korea Federation of Banks building in Jung-gu, Seoul.

The Supreme Prosecutors' Office organized this seminar together with the Federation of Banks and related agencies to discuss effective ways to block and prevent crimes infringing on people’s livelihoods in the fields of finance, telecommunications, and judiciary.

On the 22nd, at the Bankers Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul, participants including Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok, Jo Yong-byeong, Chairman of the Korea Federation of Banks, Jeong Jeom-sik, Policy Committee Chairman of the People Power Party, and Ha Tae-hoon, President of the Korea Institute of Criminology and Justice, are taking a commemorative photo at the "Public-Private Joint Seminar to Explore Strengthening Measures Against Crimes Infringing on People's Livelihood." Photo by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office

The event was attended by over 150 people, including Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok, Chairman Cho Yong-byeong of the Korea Federation of Banks, Jeong Jeom-sik, Policy Committee Chair of the People Power Party, Ha Tae-hoon, President of the Korea Institute of Criminology and Justice Policy, as well as officials from the Financial Services Commission, Financial Supervisory Service, and the National Police Agency’s Criminal Investigation Headquarters.

Voice phishing, a representative crime infringing on people’s livelihoods, has seen a significant decrease in the number of cases and damage amounts since the launch of the government joint investigation team in July 2022; however, new types of fraud crimes are increasing. According to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, voice phishing cases decreased by 39%, from 30,982 cases in 2021 to 18,902 cases in 2023. The damage amount also dropped by 42%, from 774.4 billion won to 447.2 billion won during the same period.

However, new crimes such as investment leading room fraud continue to occur steadily. In particular, online gambling crimes are leading to youth gambling addiction and secondary crimes to raise gambling funds. In his opening remarks at the seminar, Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok reported, “A few days ago, I received a report from a local prosecutor’s office about a woman in her 40s who suffered 130 million won in damages from voice phishing and attempted an extreme act with her children; only her son died, and she was indicted on murder charges,” calling it “an extreme case of the voice phishing problem.”

He stated, “Criminal punishment alone cannot protect the public’s property from voice phishing; it is much more important to prevent crimes in advance, avoid damages, and block the spread of crimes.” Prosecutor General Lee emphasized, “Voice phishing crimes, which exploit both finance and telecommunications and are conducted non-face-to-face, can be decisively reduced if financial institutions and telecommunications companies actively prepare preventive measures and respond.”

Cho Yong-byeong, Chairman of the Korea Federation of Banks, said, “Crimes infringing on people’s livelihoods that abuse technological advancements continue to threaten the daily lives of the public,” and added, “I hope that practical institutional improvement measures will be derived through this seminar to eradicate crimes infringing on people’s livelihoods.” A Supreme Prosecutors' Office official stated, “Based on the discussions at this seminar with the Federation of Banks, we will do our best to prepare effective countermeasures against crimes infringing on people’s livelihoods and will continue to cooperate to eradicate such crimes and protect our citizens.”