Voice Phishing Rings Luring Young Job Seekers with Part-Time Work and Bank Account Transfers

A voice phishing scheme has been confirmed that targets young job seekers, offering a 'routine office assistant part-time job' while actually having them transport criminal funds as money mules, or luring them into handing over their bank accounts in exchange for cash. According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), there have also been cases of foreigners residing in Korea becoming implicated in financial crimes in the process of buying and selling bank accounts or exchanging foreign currency privately.

On the 26th, the FSS announced that it will launch tailored awareness campaigns targeting young job seekers and foreign residents in Korea. The campaign aims to prevent financial fraud that exploits difficulties in finding employment.

The campaign for young job seekers will be run in partnership with the online job platform JobKorea, featuring a quiz event on employment scam prevention, along with posters at bank branches on university campuses and Job Plus Centers to inform the public about common scam tactics and how to respond.

For foreigners, the campaign will focus on bank branches, with English-language posters displayed at 49 branches specializing in foreign customers, and key response guidelines provided in multiple languages to raise awareness of the dangers of bank account trading.

Key scam tactics and response tips will also be produced and distributed as card news via the social media channels of the FSS and financial companies to make them easily accessible. An FSS official said, "We plan to expand tailored campaigns that take into account the characteristics of each target group, so that people can stay alert to the fact that they could unknowingly become involved in voice phishing crimes in daily life and learn how to respond."