A new voice phishing scheme has been identified, where fraudsters target low-credit borrowers by offering loans as bait. They obtain bank accounts and debit cards, which are then misused to receive funds from other voice phishing victims and launder money through gift cards.
On August 9, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) revealed this gift card-based money laundering method and issued a consumer alert.
According to the FSS, scammers impersonate employees of financial institutions, such as savings banks, and approach low-income individuals who struggle to secure loans due to poor credit scores. They deceive victims by claiming, "Your loan was denied due to insufficient card usage. If you repeatedly purchase gift cards with your debit card, you can increase your loan limit."
They then request, "I will buy the gift cards for you, but please hand over your debit card and bank account." Once they secure the accounts, they use them to receive loan repayments from other voice phishing victims.
Additionally, the fraudsters lure other victims with offers of low-interest refinancing loans, falsely stating, "You must first repay your existing loan principal," and direct them to send money to the previously secured accounts. Once the funds are deposited, a collector purchases large quantities of gift cards at self-service kiosks in supermarkets, cashes them out, and converts the money into virtual assets to send to overseas masterminds.
Individuals who hand over their bank accounts or debit cards while seeking loans may also be considered complicit in voice phishing crimes and could face criminal charges.
To prevent the spread of voice phishing involving gift cards, the FSS has reduced the purchase limit for gift cards at self-service kiosks from 5 million won per transaction to 1 million won per transaction and per day. They also plan to monitor for 'balloon effects' where criminals might evade these limits through alternative distribution channels.
Furthermore, the FSS will expand information sharing among related agencies through the voice phishing information-sharing and analysis AI platform, 'ASAP,' and will share the latest criminal methods and on-site response strategies.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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