The number of police reports of phishing crimes fell 38%, from about 43,000 in September this year to about 26,000 in October.
Park Sung-ju, head of the National Office of Investigation (NOI), said at a regular briefing at the Korean National Police Agency on the 24th that "the downward trend in phishing crimes has continued through the first week of November," and stated accordingly.
Police see this as the result of an active response centered on the Integrated Task Force for Telecommunication and Financial Fraud. Park, the Deputy Minister, explained that since the task force was launched on Sept. 28, China-origin voice phishing has decreased by about 25% and phishing crimes originating from Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, have decreased by about 32%.
Losses from phishing crimes also rose from 197.3 billion won in January this year to 240 billion won in July before falling to 178.4 billion won in October.
Park, the Deputy Minister, said, "With the launch of the integrated task force, we added report counselors for (phishing crimes) and are accepting reports 24 hours a day, 365 days a year," and added, "The response rate has risen to 98.2%, and the number of suspected phishing phone numbers blocked also increased from 2,898 in January this year to 15,417 in October."
The Korean National Police Agency will implement an "emergency blocking system" starting today in cooperation with telecom companies and others. It blocks phone numbers suspected of being used in phishing crimes within 10 minutes to prevent harm.
Park, the Deputy Minister, said, "We saw results by continuously blocking criminal methods and cooperating with overseas investigative agencies such as Cambodia," and added, "If we definitely break the trend of phishing crimes this year, we expect losses to decrease going forward."