Voice Phishing Joint Investigation Team at Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office to Disband Tomorrow: "Booked 1,381 People Over 4 Years"

The government joint investigation team for voice phishing crimes at the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office, which is set to disband on October 2 due to the implementation of the revised Criminal Procedure Act, has announced its achievements over the four years since its launch.

In a press release today (October 1), the joint investigation team stated that it has booked 1,381 individuals and detained 526 people since its launch in July 2022.

The criminal proceeds recovered amount to approximately 36 billion won.

Composed of multi-agency experts from the prosecution, police, National Tax Service, Korea Customs Service, and the Financial Supervisory Service, the joint investigation team has responded to organized non-face-to-face fraud, including voice phishing, smishing, camphishing, romance scams, investment reading room scams, and no-show scams.

Starting last January, it was officially organized and operated as the Joint Investigation Division.

Following the launch of the joint investigation team, the total amount of voice phishing damages showed a three-year downward trend, dropping from 774.4 billion won in 2021 to 543.8 billion won in 2022, and 4.472 trillion won in 2023.

Although damages surged to 854.5 billion won the year before last as voice phishing methods became more sophisticated and reached a record high of 1.2578 trillion won last year, the launch of a pan-governmental task force led to a decrease of about 43% in both the number of occurrences and damage amounts—totaling 632.4 billion won—from last October to July this year compared to the same period last year.

The joint investigation team continued its investigations, booking 48 members including managers of an enterprise-level criminal organization operating in Cambodia last year, and detaining 23 of them.

Through international cooperation, they also cracked down on a Cambodia-based no-show scam syndicate that defrauded 215 small business owners of approximately 3.8 billion won, and detained 23 members including the ringleader.

In addition, they cracked down for the first time on 61 multinational organization members who massively distributed mobile phone caller ID spoofing relay devices used in voice phishing, and arrested a distribution ring where even bank employees participated to supply hundreds of burner accounts and burner USIMs.

There were also cases where cases that had been suspended from indictment or left unpunished due to unconfirmed personal details were fully re-examined and investigated, leading to the detention and indictment of ringleaders and others.

Furthermore, to prevent and eradicate voice phishing, the joint investigation team requested telecommunication companies to limit the number of lines per person and proposed the introduction of an emergency blocking system to suspend incoming and outgoing functions of phone numbers used in voice phishing for seven days.

The joint investigation team stated, "Even after the transition to the Prosecution Service, we will solidify cooperation with related agencies established thus far and utilize our accumulated expertise and know-how to ensure there are no gaps in the pan-governmental response to voice phishing crimes."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.