Preemptive Blocking of 'Investment Spam Texts' Causing Fraud Damage Begins

Financial authorities and the mobile telecommunications industry are taking steps to preemptively block investment spam text messages that cause fraud damage. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) announced on the 1st that they have decided to implement measures this month to prevent investment fraud damage by blocking spam texts in cooperation with the three major mobile carriers (SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus).

According to the FSS, spam texts presumed to be sent by illegal operators for the purpose of investment fraud have surged recently. Reports of illegal investment inducement spam reached 60.67 million in the first half of this year, about eight times higher than the 6.73 million reported in the second half of last year. The damage is also increasing. Among the complaints received by the FSS from January to July, spam texts accounted for about 15% of the means used to induce investment fraud.

In response, the FSS will take measures to block investment inducement spam texts. Starting from the 16th, the scope of KISA’s “Spam Phone Number Blacklist System (Blacklist System)” will be expanded to include investment inducement spam texts. The blacklist system, operated by KISA since August last year, provides phone numbers that have been reported in large numbers as illegal spam senders to mass text message service providers, ensuring that messages sent from those numbers are collectively blocked.

The FSS and KISA analyzed approximately 20,000 investment inducement spam texts (excluding duplicates) to select illegal investment-related keywords for use in the blacklist. The inclusion criteria for KISA’s blacklist will be expanded to cover investment inducement spam texts, and mass text sending from the numbers that send such messages will be blocked for six months.

Additionally, the FSS and KISA will refine the investment-related filtering methods of the mobile carriers’ “Text Spam Filtering Service.” The FSS and KISA selected core keywords by analyzing investment inducement spam texts, and the carriers will incorporate these keywords into their respective filtering systems.

The FSS expects that the implementation of these measures will significantly prevent investment fraud damage. According to a pilot test conducted by the FSS, as of last October, about 20% more investment inducement spam texts were blocked.

The FSS stated, “Since this method uses keywords, illegal operators may try to bypass keyword blocking by using special characters, spaces, etc. However, even in such cases, the content and format of the messages become considerably crude to evade keywords, greatly reducing the credibility of the messages, which is expected to have an indirect effect on preventing investment fraud.”

Meanwhile, the FSS and KISA plan to continuously update and supplement illegal financial investment inducement keywords to reflect the latest trends. Furthermore, after these measures are established, they plan to expand the scope to cover other livelihood financial crimes, such as spam texts from illegal loan sharks.