Victim wired W120m to a 'friend' — who turned out to be a stock-tip scammer

"Why won't you let me send my own money?"

In February, a Woori Bank customer in his 50s, identified only as A, had already transferred 120 million won ($89,700) to an acquaintance's account and was trying to send an additional 80 million won to the same account when the bank stopped the transaction. The recipient account had been flagged for investment fraud linked to a stock-tip chat room. A visited a branch the following day to complain, and only then filed a fraud report with police.

The case was among several disclosed Monday at a financial fraud prevention press briefing held at Woori Bank's headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul, where the bank detailed how victims often fail to recognize they have been scammed — and what the bank is doing to intervene.

According to Woori Bank, 120 million won was deposited into A's account from a family member's account in February and immediately transferred to an account at another bank. An additional 80 million won then came in from A's own brokerage account, and when A attempted to send that sum to the same recipient, the bank's fraud detection system flagged the transaction and blocked the transfer.

Woori Bank immediately contacted the recipient bank, confirmed the account had been reported for investment fraud and placed a payment suspension on it. When asked about the purpose of the transaction, A said the money was a loan to an acquaintance — but was unable to provide basic information about that person.

A returned to the branch the next day, was told the account had been flagged in connection with a stock-tip chat room scam, said he would think it over and left. It took another day before he filed a fraud report with police.

"Victims have been acting on the scammer's instructions all along, so even when the bank suddenly tells them it's fraud, they can't accept it right away," said Jeon Jae-hong, Chief of Financial Fraud Prevention at Woori Bank. "In many cases, people only realize they've been deceived after we give them enough information and some time passes."

Behind victims' difficulty in recognizing fraud is an increasingly sophisticated playbook. Criminal organizations mine personal information shared on SNS to target victims based on their individual circumstances and psychology. In investment scams, they typically start by recommending small investments and allowing victims to withdraw profits, building trust before steering them toward much larger sums. The goal is to make victims send the money of their own accord.

The financial toll is growing sharply. According to the Korean National Police Agency, losses from financial fraud in South Korea rose from 791.1 billion won in 2022 to 2.38 trillion won last year, roughly tripling in three years. Recovery becomes even harder when stolen funds are dispersed across multiple ghost accounts or converted into virtual assets.

Data presented by Woori Bank showed that the recovery rate for voice phishing losses from 2022 through the first quarter of this year was limited to about 22 percent — a figure that includes amounts returned to victims through payment suspensions. Jeon said the share actually recovered through law enforcement action against criminal networks is far lower. "Unless the voice phishing organization itself is dismantled, you can consider it nearly impossible to recover money that has already been sent," he said.

In response, when Woori Bank's fraud detection system flags a suspicious transaction, the bank asks the customer about the purpose of the transfer and shares information on suspect accounts with other financial institutions to assess whether fraud is involved. The bank checks not only the transaction amount and the flow of funds but also whether the sender's and recipient's accounts of their relationship match.

In September, the bank caught a discrepancy in how a sender and recipient described their relationship, preventing losses of 260 million won. In that case, a customer at another bank, identified as B, transferred 290 million won to Woori Bank customer C, after which 30 million won moved out to a fraud-flagged account at yet another bank.

Woori Bank contacted the other financial institution to verify the circumstances of the transfer. B said C was his nephew-in-law and that he had sent the money to give him some investment experience. C, however, said he was B's nephew. The conflicting accounts prompted the bank to freeze the account. B subsequently visited a branch and filed a fraud report, allowing the bank to prevent an additional 260 million won from being transferred out.

"Collaboration with other banks is critically important," Jeon said. "This case also shows that it takes longer than you might expect for victims to realize they have been defrauded." He added that financial fraud cannot be solved by any single institution acting alone. "It is important to strengthen the network through which police, financial institutions and other relevant agencies can cooperate," he said.

The bank also prevented losses in a case where a customer was tricked by a scammer impersonating a prosecutor into buying gold with loan proceeds. In May last year, a 58-year-old customer identified as D transferred 180 million won in loan funds to a gold dealer's account. Woori Bank grew suspicious of a large loan being used to purchase gold and reached out to the customer.

After three attempts, a bank employee reached D by phone and learned that D had been following instructions from someone impersonating a prosecutor, intending to receive the gold in physical form and hand it over. D had already suffered losses five days earlier, having sent 130 million won to a different gold dealer. The employee immediately advised D to hang up on the scammer and connected him to the police's integrated response unit for telecommunications and financial fraud. The intervention prevented the gold D was about to purchase with an additional 180 million won loan from falling into the scammer's hands.

"When we suspect financial fraud and a customer cannot adequately explain the transaction, we suspend it immediately," Jeon said. "The money can move to another account within 30 minutes to an hour, causing further losses." He stressed that the most important thing is to block the transfer before the funds leave the account.