Voice, SMS phishing scams on coronavirus surging
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By Jun Ji-hye
The government has warned against increasing telecommunications fraud such as voice phishing and smishing related to the coronavirus, in which swindlers scam the public by playing on fears of the contagious virus, officials said Tuesday.
According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, Financial Services Commission and National Police Agency, the number of smishing, or SMS phishing, cases related to the newly-discovered virus has tallied at 9,688 as of Saturday.
Smishing is a criminal practice using mobile phone text messages to deliver the bait, such as fake web links, to acquire the passwords and other personal information of hapless victims.
Smishing messages related to the new coronavirus included, “Handing out free facial masks,” and “Delay in parcel service due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.”
The number of voice phishing scams has also been consistently increasing, the government said, noting that in some cases scammers pretended to be quarantine officials or confirmed patients and ask for money.
In one case, a scammer who pretended to be a confirmed coronavirus patient called an owner of a restaurant and tried to extort money, saying, “I will tell everyone I visited your restaurant.”
In another kind of scam, a person pretended to be an official from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the phone, asking a victim to download a malicious app through which their personal information could be acquired.
“The government will cooperate with the nation's three mobile carriers to send text messages to the public to warn against voice phishing and smishing in a bid to prevent incidents in advance,” an ICT ministry official said.
The government will also immediately suspend phone numbers, and block URLs used in such cases, in cooperation with the relevant agencies.
“In addition to the government measures, individuals are also required to take extra caution not to fall victim to telecommunications scams,” the official said. “If a mobile phone is lost, or personal information is suspected to have been leaked, it is advised to use a kill switch and other services designed to prevent secondary damage.”
The kill switch service enables remote control of the lost smartphone to prevent one's personal information from being put to fraudulent use.