SEOUL, Police will establish a new investigation division exclusively dedicated to phishing crimes in a bid to better fight increasingly sophisticated phishing attacks, officials said Wednesday. The National Police Agency unveiled the plan during a pan-government meeting against voice phishing as the country has seen such crimes grow recently in terms of volume and variety. The police agency nabbed a total of 22,386 phishing offenders last year, with the confirmed financial damage from phishing scams reaching 447.2 billion won (US$337 million). The envisioned investigation division, to be established under the wing of the National Office of Investigation, the investigation pillar of the police, will assume all voice phishing investigation responsibilities currently managed by the office's economic and cyber crime investigation units. The annual budget for the new body has been increased to 1.74 billion won this year, 890 million won more than the amount allocated for related investigations last year. Th e new division, in particular, plans to operate a phishing crime warning system, wherein individuals will receive a text message alerting them of voice phishing crimes immediately after they receive messages from telephone numbers previously reported for such crimes. Source: Yonhap News Agency