Police: "Phishing Crimes from Southeast Asia Down 32%... Goal to Halve Total by 2030"

Emergency Blocking Implemented Within 10 Minutes

On the 24th, Sungjoo Park, Chief of the National Investigation Headquarters, stated, "Since the establishment of the Pan-Governmental Integrated Response Team for voice phishing, the amount of damages caused by new types of phishing crimes originating from Southeast Asia has decreased by 32%."

Sungjoo Park, Chief of the National Investigation Headquarters, National Police Agency. Photo by Yonhap News

At a regular press briefing held that day, Chief Park said, "It has been confirmed that the trend shifted to a decline after the mass repatriation of victims of new phishing scams from Cambodia."

Chief Park explained, "In January, there were 2,898 cases of blocking suspected phishing numbers, but last month, the number increased to 11,541 cases. Since the pilot implementation of the emergency blocking system for suspected phishing numbers within 10 minutes on the 30th of last month, we have additionally blocked about 5,200 phone numbers over the past three weeks."

Regarding concerns that overseas phishing calls themselves may have decreased, Chief Park responded, "It is true that the fixed portion has decreased," adding, "It is natural that those preparing crimes locally are currently in a lull."

Chief Park stated, "Our goal is to reduce voice phishing crimes to about half of the current level by 2030," and added, "We will do our utmost to minimize damages to the public."