▲ An introductory post of a social media account impersonating Bank of Korea Governor Shin Hyun-song. Access to the account was blocked hours later.
Public caution is advised as social media accounts impersonating public figures, such as Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Shin Hyun-song, have recently cropped up to repeatedly solicit investments with messages like, "If you want to read the future of the economy and stay grounded, follow us now!"
On September 22 and 23, right before the Chuseok holiday, accounts impersonating Governor Shin appeared on social media and uploaded multiple posts suggesting they would help users understand economic trends.
While these accounts did not openly solicit investments, they induced users who added them as friends or sent messages to join group chat rooms under the pretext of a "study group."
According to findings, users who joined the chat rooms following these instructions were asked to provide personal information under the promise of "receiving stock picks with double-digit returns."
Operated in the typical style of illegal stock-reading rooms, when a reporter asked, "What does this have to do with the Bank of Korea?", the operator evaded the question by saying, "Financial institutions originally have many internal circumstances that outsiders find difficult to know."
The account impersonating Governor Shin was suspended hours after the BOK requested the social media operator to remove it, but the reading room, which had already attracted numerous members in the meantime, is still operating on Telegram.
While opening two-way channels for one-on-one investment advisory or real-time communication with participants is restricted to officially registered investment advisory companies, these operators lacked even a proper company name.
The method of creating accounts impersonating public figures to lure people into illegal reading rooms and solicit investments has become established as a type of investment scam.
Social media consistently sees the emergence of accounts impersonating not only Governor Shin, but also well-known figures in the financial sector, celebrities, and "finfluencers" (financial influencers) with recognized names and faces.
Fake accounts are created not just for individuals, but also to impersonate official accounts of famous investment communities or YouTube channels, while photos posted by ordinary citizens on social media are also being stolen.
Such investment scam-type phishing has been found to cause hundreds of billions of won in damages every year.
According to data submitted by People Power Party lawmaker Seo Il-jun from the Financial Supervisory Service, investment scam phishing cases in the first quarter of this year reached 6,769, with damages amounting to 181.7 billion won.
Damages for last year were tallied at 11,468 cases and 391.6 billion won.
While various institutions, including the BOK, are striving to prevent damages by requesting operators to delete accounts, cases of damage continue to steadily emerge.
A BOK official stated, "While we cannot identify impersonation accounts in advance, we plan to continuously review them and respond immediately upon discovery."
(Photo: Captured from Threads, Yonhap News)
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