The National Police Agency announced on November 23 that it will implement a system in cooperation with the three major telecommunications companies and Samsung Electronics to block phone numbers used in voice phishing crimes within 10 minutes.
Since December last year, the National Police Agency has introduced a simple reporting feature on Samsung smartphones. When a user receives a suspicious call suspected of voice phishing on a smartphone equipped with this feature, they can report it by pressing the "Report as Phishing" button. For users whose phones do not have this feature, they can access the "Integrated Response Center for Telecommunications Financial Fraud" website to report suspicious text messages or calls.
The Integrated Response Center analyzes the phone numbers reported through the simple reporting feature and the website. If a number is suspected to be used for criminal activity, the center requests the telecommunications companies to block it, and the companies immediately block the number for seven days.
After the block, criminals cannot make calls or send bait messages using the blocked number, and any subsequent attempts to call will not connect. These temporarily blocked numbers undergo further analysis and are eventually permanently suspended. Therefore, emergency blocking is expected to be an effective means to quickly stop criminal activity with the minimum necessary procedures and time.
An official from the National Police Agency stated, "The more actively the public participates in reporting and submitting information, the faster and more extensively we can block criminal tools through the emergency blocking system."
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