"Check your bill."
The National Health Insurance Service said on the 26th that text messages impersonating the agency are circulating, luring recipients into visiting certain websites or installing malicious applications.
The messages carry a subject line telling recipients to check a bill sent by the National Health Insurance Service, along with a URL leading to a site impersonating the agency, according to the service.
The messages include the agency's corporate identity design to make them appear to be official notifications, and they deceive recipients into believing that a separate program must be installed to open the document, prompting the installation of malicious apps.
The agency said, however, that none of its electronic notices or text messages for bills covering the four major insurance programs contain a URL. "If you receive such a message, delete it immediately or check with a branch office or the customer service center," the service said.
How to Prevent Phishing
As voice phishing schemes grow more sophisticated, losses are snowballing. Damage from voice phishing totaled 1.2578 trillion won (about $910 million) last year, topping 1 trillion won for the first time, according to the National Police Agency. That was up 47.2% from 854.5 billion won a year earlier. Crimes involving impersonation of public institutions have surged in particular recently.
The "10 Commandments for Preventing Voice Phishing Damage," distributed by the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, tells the public to hang up on calls about identity theft or criminal investigations, to suspect AI manipulation even when the caller sounds like a family member, to refuse instructions to install apps, to avoid clicking unclear links and to sign up for a preemptive credit-blocking service. Anyone who suspects voice phishing should report it immediately to police at 112 or the Financial Supervisory Service call center at 1332.
