FSS Meets with Naver and Kakao, Vows Full Efforts to Prevent Financial Investment Scams

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) announced on the 21st that Kim Miyoung, Director of the Financial Consumer Protection Bureau, presided over a meeting with major online platforms and related organizations.

The meeting was organized to share the results of the voluntary regulatory measures introduced by major online platforms at the government-wide level, as well as to discuss the latest trends in online financial investment scams, their methods, and key takeaways. The event was held at Kakao's headquarters in Pangyo, with representatives from related companies such as Naver and Google in attendance.

The FSS shared with participants the main characteristics and methods of the recent surge in online financial investment scams, as well as the current status of the supervisory authorities’ response and relevant insights.

As of last year, the total damages caused by illegal investment guidance chat rooms amounted to 710.4 billion won, which is about 83% of the damages from voice phishing (854.5 billion won), posing a significant threat to public safety and property.

The FSS explained that it is working to protect financial consumers from financial investment scams such as illegal investment guidance chat rooms by requesting the blocking of illegal financial information, referring cases for investigation, and conducting public awareness campaigns to prevent damage.

However, it was pointed out that requests to block illegal operators’ websites (via the Korea Communications Standards Commission and KISA) and preventive publicity measures (such as issuing consumer alerts) are preemptive damage prevention methods and therefore have certain limitations.

Since last year, online platforms have introduced voluntary regulatory measures to prevent financial consumer damages by eradicating financial investment scams such as illegal financial advertisements and unauthorized investment solicitations.

As a result of these measures, the FSS noted that there have been significant achievements, such as blocking fraudulent accounts and reducing illegal financial advertisements.

Director Kim Miyoung stated, "I appreciate that online platforms, in cooperation with the FSS, have proactively established, detected, and reported voluntary regulatory systems to eradicate financial investment scams and have achieved tangible results." She urged, "I ask the industry to go beyond the limitations of voluntary regulation and actively take strong responsibility to protect their platform users."