Investment fraud via illegal stock-tip chatrooms hits W181.7b in Q1, with 70% of victims middle-aged or older

A, a former sales manager at an investment advisory firm, drew on his industry experience to team up with four friends and launch an illegal stock-tip chatroom on Telegram. He rented office space in a building in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, and assembled computers, dozens of burner phones and data on roughly 3,000 investors. He also reached an agreement with B, the operation's money-laundering chief, on how to divide the proceeds. Under A's direction, group members approached unsuspecting investors on Telegram with a pitch: buy shares in Company C at about 10,000 won below the IPO price, and the shares would be allocated once the money was wired to a designated account. The scheme netted A and his associates about 500 million won ($372,000). A court sentenced A in January to seven years in prison on charges of violating the Special Act on Prevention of Damage from Telecommunications-Based Financial Fraud and Refund of Damage.

As interest in stock investing has surged — the Kospi more than doubled in a single year — fraudsters have increasingly exploited that enthusiasm through investment-fraud phishing schemes. Losses from such scams in just the first quarter of this year have already reached nearly half of the total recorded for all of last year. Particularly alarming is that seven out of 10 victims are middle-aged or older.

Data submitted to the office of Rep. Seo Il-jun of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee, by the Financial Supervisory Service show that investment-fraud phishing losses reached 181.7 billion won across 6,769 cases through the end of the first quarter of this year.

Total voice phishing losses in the first quarter came to 226 billion won across 9,788 cases, meaning investment-fraud phishing accounted for 80 percent of all losses. Investment-fraud phishing refers to schemes like A's — operators set up illegal stock-tip chatrooms and lure victims with claims of exclusive market intelligence, then pocket the money.

Both the number of cases and total losses are rising sharply compared with last year, a trend analysts attribute to fraudsters exploiting the surge in public interest in stocks since the start of the year. For all of last year, investment-fraud losses totaled 391.6 billion won across 11,468 cases. In just one quarter, losses have already reached 46 percent of that full-year figure.

Older adults have become the primary targets. People in their 50s and above accounted for 75.2 percent of all cases — 2,243 involving victims in their 50s, 2,230 in their 60s and 619 aged 70 or older. Measured by losses, 80.6 percent of the total was concentrated among victims aged 50 and above.

By financial sector, banks recorded 2,900 cases, securities firms and other financial investment companies 2,129 cases, and mutual finance institutions 1,676 cases.

Loan-impersonation and identity-impersonation fraud, meanwhile, appear to be on a downward trend. Loan-impersonation fraud — in which criminals lure financially struggling borrowers with promises of low-interest or high-limit loans before stealing their money — is sometimes called "recession-type phishing" because it targets people in financial distress. Cases of this type peaked at 7,375 in 2024, after rising from 1,781 in 2022 and 3,615 in 2023, before edging down to 7,202 in 2025. In the first quarter of this year, 1,123 cases were recorded, suggesting the pace of growth has slowed considerably.

Messenger and institutional impersonation fraud fell from 17,786 cases in 2023 to 11,416 in 2024, then climbed back to 14,571 in 2025. The first quarter of this year recorded 1,896 cases, also indicating a slowdown in growth.

Criminal methods are growing increasingly sophisticated, however, demanding heightened vigilance. Institutional impersonation schemes and romance scams have been particularly prevalent recently. In February, a man surnamed Ahn, who led a romance scam team within a Thai criminal organization called "Rung Ger Company" with roots in Cambodia, was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He was found to have defrauded more than 700 victims of 15 billion won.

To minimize losses from investment fraud, romance scams and other emerging phishing crimes, financial authorities have been enforcing a "temporary account suspension guideline" since June. Under the existing Telecommunications Fraud Damage Refund Act, financial institutions can immediately freeze accounts suspected of involvement in voice phishing. Investment chatroom fraud and romance scams were difficult to classify as voice phishing — and therefore hard to act on — because they involve an ostensible exchange of goods or services.

In response, financial authorities drew up a guideline that interprets the Telecommunications Fraud Damage Refund Act and the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information broadly, enabling financial institutions to take faster action to limit fraud losses.

Regardless of the type of fraud — new-style phishing, voice phishing or otherwise — accounts suspected of involvement in criminal activity can be suspended for three days. If police confirm the crime constitutes a new-style phishing offense, a formal transaction freeze is then imposed.

Authorities have also recently built an AI platform to rapidly share voice-phishing-related information across the financial, telecommunications and law enforcement sectors, creating an information-sharing framework that can be used to freeze accounts, block communications and apprehend suspects.

"As new financial scams targeting the elderly grow ever more sophisticated, financial authorities must rigorously verify that the temporary account suspension guideline is working effectively on the ground," Rep. Seo said.