137 Korean Celebrities Jointly Address Trillion-Won Impersonation Phishing Crimes

On March 22, the Group for Resolving Onling Phishing Crimes by Impersonating Celebrities held a press conference to shed light on the seriousness of online phishing crimes impersonating celebrities. They called for efforts from the government and online platforms alike to address the rising issue.

Since 2023, South Korea has been plagued with widespread celebrity impersonation scams on platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Kakaotalk, and so on. According to the police’s report, the illegal activities, including investment-leading chatrooms involving celebrity impersonators, exceeded 1,000 cases between September to November last year, with damages over ₩120 billion KRW (about $89.3 million USD). However, according to the phishing crimes resolution group, the total damages from victims who are preparing for lawsuits will most likely extend ₩1.00 trillion KRW (about $744 million USD).

Many Korean celebrities, a total 137 of them, have expressed their support for the group through official statements. These inlcude Yoo Jae Suk, Kim Nam Gil, Baek Ji Young, Kim Sook, Hong Jin Kyung, Uhm Jung Hwa, to name a few.

The official statement from the group mentioned that all the affected celebrities have taken all the right legal measures individually and even warned fans through their platforms. However, these organized phishing groups have evolved so much that it has become difficult for police to locate their whereabouts. Even the leading social media platforms are unable to filter out such criminal advertisements in advance.

During the press conference, the group asked the government to step in and aide the citizens against such organized financial attacks. They also urged social media platforms to develop preventive measures through their technologies to prevent further victims.