Rep. Heo Seong-moo of the Democratic Party of Korea announced Wednesday that he has introduced an amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act to preemptively counter persistent social media phishing crimes.
The core of the amendment mandates that social media platforms display the country from which a user is accessing the service, given that most phishing schemes involve hijacking domestic accounts and logging in from overseas.
According to data provided to Heo's office by the National Police Agency and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), phishing cases involving social media platforms such as KakaoTalk and Telegram reached 52,185 last year, with damages totaling 2.3755 trillion won ($1.7 billion). This represents increases of 22.6% and 37.3%, respectively, compared with 42,565 cases and 1.7304 trillion won in damages in 2024.
Types of phishing include messenger phishing (impersonating family or acquaintances), romance scams, voice phishing, smishing and sextortion phishing.
More than 90% of social media phishing crimes were found to originate from overseas, primarily China, the Philippines and Cambodia. However, critics have repeatedly pointed out that when perpetrators hijack accounts registered with Korean phone numbers and access them from abroad, users have no way to identify the fraud, amplifying damages.
In response, Heo's amendment requires messenger platforms to implement technical measures that clearly indicate when a user's registration country differs from their actual access country.
Key provisions of the amendment include: displaying a notification when the access country differs from the registration country; establishing a standing reporting system for suspected criminal accounts; immediately suspending reported accounts and notifying users; and imposing fines of up to 50 million won on operators that violate these obligations.
If passed, the amendment is expected to not only help prevent social media phishing crimes but also establish platform operators' duty to protect users.
"Because phishing damage is extremely difficult to recover from after it occurs, it is important to raise the technical barriers to entry for criminals," Heo said. "We will focus on preemptive blocking rather than post-incident punishment, and strengthen the social responsibility of messenger platforms to protect citizens' assets."
The bill was co-sponsored by Reps. Kim Jong-min, Kim Dong-a, Jeon Jin-suk, Kim Jung-ho, Jeon Jong-deok, Park Sun-won, Jo In-cheol, Han Jung-ae and Kim Yong-man.