S. Korea crafts new ATM withrawal system against voice phishing

Cash withdrawals of 3 million won or more at South Korea's ATM machines will not be possible until at least 10minutes after the money has been wired.

South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service said this new cash withdrawal system later this month to reduce the harm caused by voice phishing.

In about three-quarters of voice phishing cases, in which criminals pretend to be trustworthy entities in telephone or online communication to obtain personal and financial information or receive money transfers, themoney was withdrawn by the swindlers within 10 minutes of being wired.

“Most victims realize they have been duped immediately after wiring the money, but in about 75 percent of the cases, the money was siphoned off within 10 minutes, making it difficult to reduce damages,” said an FSS official.

Whereas more than 90 percent of normal money transfers are of less than 3 million won, 84 percent of transfersmade to voice phishing scammers were for 3 million won or more.

The new measure to delay the cash withdrawal will be applied to all financial institutions that handletransactional accounts such as banks, mutual savings banks, the Korea Post, federations of agricultural,fisheries and livestock farm cooperatives, the Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives and somesecurities companies.

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