On the front line in the battle against global mobile banking scams like voice phishing, SK Telecom starts a service called International Call Notices. On August 31, SK Telecom announced that it will start warning its customers with a messaging service to identify international calls. This service will begin on September 1, 2009. LG Telecom and KT will soon provide equivalent services as well to secure customer safety.
An SK Telecom spokesman said, “According to reports from The Financial Supervisory Service, there were 4,650 cases of mobile banking scams during the first half of the year.” He went on to say that “The amount of damage reached 43.7 billion won (US$35million)” and “Most of the voice phishing that leads people to withdraw their savings using the phone originates from overseas - for example China and Taiwan. That is the one of the typical cases.” The spokesman closed by saying, “We hope that the customers who receive the International Call Notice take precautions when choosing to answer or not.” So we can expect that this new service will further reduce the damages of mobile banking scams.
