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Ahead of the Lunar New Year, fraudulent text messages impersonating couriers or government subsidies are on the rise. You need to be careful as there are many cases where they are trying to get a voice phishing or fraudulent loan while preparing for the holidays.
Reporter Im Tae-woo reports.
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As the Lunar New Year approaches, self-employed Kim Min-seong often receives text messages for loan advertisements.
They said that they were eligible for a special loan supported by the government, were selected as a supporter for daily recovery of small businesses, and that they would provide loans at an ultra-low interest rate of 1%.
In fact, no financial institution has ever sent such a text message.
[Kim Min-seong / Suwon, Gyeonggi-do: I receive a text message like this and say, 'You can apply within 5 days only.
' Instead of raising your credit rating, we advise you to send money or get a high-interest loan.
It was a scam using text messages as bait.
The number of text messages asking to check the courier or that the product has been paid is also on the rise.
Of the 202,000 text scams reported and blocked last year, nearly 90% of them were impersonating couriers, especially when there are a lot of New Year's gifts coming and going like now.
[Geum Se-hee/Gangseo-gu, Seoul: (I called) He said that you can do it in the order I told you, and he gave me a link.
Yes, but I'm a little suspicious, right?
I contacted the police cyber investigation team.
I said that there are too many cases like that.]
It is better to delete the Internet address or phone number that is included in these scam messages right away without clicking on it from the beginning.
Also, if you ask for personal information such as ID or account password, you must never respond as it is 100% fraudulent.