The Financial Supervisory Service warned that cases of people providing virtual accounts to financial fraudsters and becoming implicated as accomplices are continuing.
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on the 19th issued a consumer alert, saying cases of using virtual accounts as tools to withdraw and launder criminal funds are increasing.
A virtual account is a legitimate transaction method used for paying card bills or making shopping mall payments, but because the account holder name appears as the business name—making it easy to mistake for a normal transaction—it can be exploited as a route for moving criminal funds.
Fraudsters approach victims who have difficulty borrowing due to high interest burdens and lure them with pretexts such as "low-interest loans are available" and "transaction performance is needed," then demand deposits into a virtual account to embezzle the funds.
In particular, virtual accounts are being used as a means to embezzle funds in new types of phishing such as side-job scams, investment scams, and secondhand transaction scams. Methods are also being used in which they approach with ads like "guaranteed high returns" and "revenue from simple tasks" to induce deposits of investment funds or participation fees into a virtual account.
Recently, it was also confirmed that voice phishing rings obtain virtual accounts from payment gateway (PG) companies or purchase them in bulk and use them as routes for moving criminal funds.
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has detected related PG firms and illegal businesses and requested an investigation by prosecutors. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) also urged caution, saying that providing a virtual account to another person could implicate you as an accomplice in a voice phishing crime.
An official at the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said, "When conducting a transaction, be sure to check whether the counterparty and the account holder name match, and be sure to refuse any request to provide or sell a third party's virtual account."