Voice phishing scams cost $12,996 in losses per victim, up 50% from year earlier

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Total losses from voice phishing scams jumped to a record high of 197 billion won ($149 million) in 2003, up 35.4 percent from a year earlier, the Financial Supervisory Service said on Friday.

Victims suffered an average loss of 17.1 million won ($12,996), up 51 percent from a year earlier, although the number of victims decreased by about 10 percent to 11,503.

The upward spiral was due to an increases in scams involving large sums of money, the FSS said. There has been a steep rise in instances where individual victims suffered a greater amount of losses. The number of victims who suffered more than 100 million won in losses jumped nearly 70 percent to 231, while the number of victims whose damage surpassed 10 million won jumped 30 percent to 4,650.

Out of the 197 billion won in total losses due to scams, 65 billion won has been returned to the victims.

An analysis of scam types indicates that 35 percent of cases involve loan-related fraud, followed closely by messenger phishing schemes impersonating family members or acquaintances at 34 percent. Government agency impersonation accounted for 31 percent of the reported scams. Notably, while messenger phishing has seen a decline, there's been a rise in government impersonation and loan-deception cases.

The age groups most impacted by these scams have shifted as well, with those under 20 and individuals in their 30s seeing substantial increases in losses by 13.5 billion won and 13.9 billion won, respectively.

The use of internet-only banks for fraudulent accounts has fallen, while the involvement of smaller financial firms, such as mutual finance cooperatives, has risen.

Some key features identified in the recent scams include an increase in victims suffering substantial losses, with different age groups being targeted by specific scam types: those under 20 are mainly targeted by institutional impersonations, those in their 30s and 40s by loan scams, and those in their 50s and 60s by family or acquaintance impersonations.

The FSS said it will take comprehensive countermeasures to mitigate the rise of such fraud. These include supporting a 24-hour response system across the financial sector, bolstering defenses against government impersonation and loan-deception scams, advancing anti-voice phishing technologies, and conducting customized voice phishing prevention education tailored to different life stages.

This article is assisted by a generative AI solution and edited by The Korea Times.