Seoul: The country's financial regulator announced that regular, systematic cooperation among related government agencies will be implemented to better detect and crack down on new types of online phishing crimes.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) stated that financial institutions and related agencies will enhance their existing fraud detection systems this year to effectively identify such online crimes and mule accounts, along with sharing relevant information. Starting next month, financial accounts suspected to be linked to new types of phishing crimes, such as romance scams, will be rapidly frozen.

Voice phishing insurance, among other products, will also be introduced to better protect victims of phishing crimes, the FSC noted. Phishing involves victims being deceived into transferring money to scammers or sharing personal information, allowing fraudsters to access their bank accounts.

Additionally, a new platform based on artificial intelligence (AI) has prevented approximately 47.5 billion won (US$31.5 million) in financial losses from voice phishing scams over the past six months, according to the state regulator. The country launched the AI-based Phishing Sharing and Analysis Platform (ASAP) in late October to bolster anti-fraud efforts.

The FSC reported that 317,000 cases of voice phishing-related information have been shared among financial institutions during the mentioned period, and transfers from 5,261 accounts have been stopped.