South Korea on High Alert: Police Warn of Phishing Surge Post-Coupang Data Leak
South Korean authorities are sounding the alarm following a massive data breach at e-commerce giant Coupang, cautioning the public about a significant rise in sophisticated voice phishing and text message scams. The leak, which was first detected in June and publicly disclosed last month, compromised the personal details of an staggering 33.7 million Coupang customers. This incident has fueled concerns that cybercriminals are now leveraging this stolen data to devise more convincing and effective deceitful schemes.
Evolving Scam Tactics Exposed
Police have identified several evolving tactics. One prevalent scam involves deceptive text messages that claim issues with a delivery, such as a delay or a missing item from an order. Recipients are then prompted to click on a malicious link. Engaging with such links can lead to the unwitting installation of harmful applications or direct users to fraudulent websites designed to steal sensitive personal and financial information, ultimately resulting in monetary losses.
While the National Police Agency has stated that no immediate secondary damages have been confirmed from these new tactics, they stress the critical need for continued vigilance. A particularly alarming new scheme involves scammers contacting victims under the pretense that a credit card has been opened in their name without authorization, explicitly linking this to the recent Coupang data leak. These fraudsters then instruct victims to call a fake customer service line and install a remote-control application, granting criminals unfettered access to their phones and enabling further data theft.
Public Advisory: Stay Vigilant Against Cyber Threats
Both law enforcement and Coupang itself are issuing strong warnings. Police advise the public to immediately delete messages, links, or applications from unknown or suspicious sources. They also recommend treating calls from unidentifiable numbers as potential voice phishing attempts, emphasizing that reporting suspected cases is crucial for authorities to quickly adapt and counter emerging scam techniques. Coupang has reinforced this message, clarifying that the company will never request customers to install applications via phone calls or text messages, urging users to delete any suspicious communications and refrain from clicking unknown links.