Voice Phishing Losses Hit 5-Year High as Per-Case Damage Doubles

The Devil's Design: How Voice Phishing Victims Are Exploited Again and Again

A woman in her 50s identified only as "A," a Seoul housewife, recently needed a large sum of money and began searching for loans online. She came across a post advertising rates lower than those of major commercial banks and reached out. The consultant mentioned a specific regional bank, telling her, "We have a partnership with this bank, so loan approval is easier and the interest rate is lower. Just open an account and send us a one-time password (OTP)." After being shown a verification document bearing the name of the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) governor, A trusted the consultant and complied. But the loan never came through for more than two weeks. When A finally checked her account, she found suspicious transactions already recorded. A voice phishing ring had routed money stolen from other victims through her account and into their own. Without her knowledge, A had become the registered holder of a so-called "ghost account" through which approximately 1.2 billion won ($880 million) in fraud proceeds had flowed, and her account was ultimately frozen.

While some believe voice phishing is declining as newer scams such as investment chat-room fraud and cryptocurrency investment fraud proliferate, per-case losses have actually grown. Criminal organizations have become increasingly specialized and compartmentalized, sharing victim information among themselves and approaching people who have already been defrauded to inflict secondary damage. As tactics grow more elaborate, victims take longer to report crimes, making it harder to recover lost funds.

According to data the Seoul Kyungje Shinmun obtained from the FSS through the office of Democratic Party lawmaker Heo Young on June 24, losses from voice phishing and other telecommunications-based financial fraud totaled 433.8 billion won ($317 million) last year, up 53.7 billion won (14.1%) from 380.1 billion won the previous year. It was the largest amount in the past five years (2020–2025).

Over the same period, the number of cases fell from 25,859 in 2020 to 21,773 last year, a decline of 4,086 cases (15.8%). The most notable feature of recent voice phishing crime is that while the number of cases has decreased, total losses have risen, meaning the damage per case has grown significantly. Per-case losses reached approximately 19.9 million won last year, more than doubling from roughly 9.1 million won in 2020. Per-case losses have been on an overall upward trend — approximately 4.2 million won in 2016, roughly 6.3 million won in 2018, and 20.2 million won in 2024.

Analysts say conventional tactics — impersonating prosecutors, sending fake text messages, and staging kidnappings — have become far more sophisticated in recent years, driving up the scale of damage. In particular, personal information of people who have already been victimized is shared among criminal syndicates. The groups then approach those victims claiming they will "recover the lost funds" or "help with relief procedures," a method that leads to second and third rounds of fraud.

"Criminal rings keep circulating victim data among themselves, and they frequently re-approach someone who has already been defrauded, saying 'We'll help you recoup your losses,' only to inflict additional damage," said Yoo Yong-il, an attorney at law firm Yulpyeong. "Recently, tactics have become more advanced and vicious, going beyond simple voice phishing to link victims to tertiary financial-sector loans and squeeze them to the very end," he added. "There are also cases where they inflate the damage by arranging high-interest loans, telling victims, 'You need to pay taxes first to recover your investment returns,'" Yoo said.

Notably, younger MZ-generation members who are quick to adopt new technologies have been learning fraud techniques at overseas call centers and then returning to Korea, where they join domestic organizations that offer relatively easy access to large illicit profits. The Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office Joint Investigation Unit on Voice Phishing Crimes (headed by senior prosecutor Lee Tae-soon) recently indicted nine people on charges of conducting voice phishing operations targeting Koreans from a so-called "Wongu complex" in Myanmar. Some of them were caught participating in separate voice phishing schemes in Korea after returning home.

Meanwhile, as fraud methods become more sophisticated, recovering losses grows increasingly difficult. The refund rate for voice phishing victims was just 26.3% last year. Refund amounts totaled 114.1 billion won, up 29.9 billion won (35.5%) from 84.2 billion won the previous year, but because overall losses also rose, the refund rate itself remained low. Last year's refund rate was roughly half of the 48.5% recorded in 2020.