Voice Phishing Fraud Detected by Korea’s Major Banks Doubled in 2025
Confirmed voice phishing transactions detected by South Korea’s five major commercial banks more than doubled to 8,760 last year, highlighting rising fraud pressure and the expanding role of real-time monitoring systems.
Confirmed voice phishing transactions identified through fraud monitoring at South Korea’s five largest commercial banks more than doubled in 2025, underscoring the growing scale of financial scams and the pressure on lenders to improve real-time defenses.
The banks detected 8,760 transactions that were ultimately confirmed as fraud after their monitoring systems flagged the activity and temporary suspension measures were taken. That was up from 4,343 confirmed cases in 2024, according to Financial Supervisory Service data submitted to opposition lawmaker Park Seong-hoon.
The figures cover KB Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank, Hana Bank, Woori Bank and NH Nonghyup Bank. Together, their fraud detection systems flagged 1.11 million transactions as suspected voice phishing during 2025, a 39.9 percent increase from 796,000 a year earlier.
Banks took temporary measures against 157,000 of the suspected transactions last year, compared with 125,000 in 2024. The gap between the much larger pool of alerts and the cases eventually confirmed as fraud reflects the screening role of fraud detection systems, which monitor transactions, customer activity and other information in real time for signs of suspicious behavior.
The increase in confirmed cases points to the continuing challenge posed by voice phishing in a banking system where transfers can be made rapidly through digital channels. Timely detection and temporary holds can be critical because funds moved through scam transactions may become harder to recover once they pass through multiple accounts.
The data also arrive as South Korean financial institutions face broader pressure to reinforce cybersecurity. A series of cyberattacks has exposed personal information belonging to about 100,000 people across the financial industry, including names, email addresses and telephone numbers. Such information can heighten concern about fraud attempts that use personal details to appear credible.
For banks, the latest figures show both the reach of automated monitoring and the volume of activity that must be reviewed. The sharp rise in transactions confirmed as fraudulent suggests that stronger detection alone may not be sufficient, placing added importance on rapid intervention, customer awareness and protection of personal data across the financial sector.