Gmarket said on the 3rd that it decided to fully refund the entire amount of damages to all affected customers in connection with the suspected identity theft incident that occurred on the 29th. Gmarket plans to conduct a thorough investigation, including identifying the cause, in cooperation with investigative authorities.
All affected customers are eligible for this compensation. Gmarket will guide all customers for whom unauthorized payment circumstances have been confirmed on how to receive compensation and will actively support reports to investigative authorities.
Earlier on the 29th, about 60 Gmarket users reported to the Financial Supervisory Service that they had suffered unauthorized payment incidents. The unauthorized payments are known to have occurred when gift certificates were purchased with cards registered to Gmarket's easy payment service "Smile Pay." Individual damages were reportedly under 200,000 won. The Financial Supervisory Service, which received the case, began an emergency on-site inspection on the 3rd.
Gmarket believes the incident occurred through a method in which someone logged in using illegally collected personal information from outside and then made payments. It is presumed to be a typical "identity theft crime" that exploited the practice of using the same account across multiple sites.
Gmarket also prepared preemptive security reinforcement measures to prevent further damage. First, it is conducting a password change recommendation campaign for all customers who have not changed their passwords within the past month. It is guiding customers to keep their passwords up to date through individual messages on the login screen and notices from the customer center, and it is also providing methods for creating secure passwords.
It will also expand additional authentication steps. A pop-up will recommend setting up two-step authentication in addition to an ID and password at login. Strengthened identity verification procedures will be introduced for certain product categories with high sensitivity, such as cashable gift certificates.
A Gmarket official said, "We will prioritize ensuring a safe shopping environment for customers and make every effort to strengthen security so that secondary damage such as identity theft and phishing does not recur."