Voice phishing fraud and its modus operandi

Abstract

Voice Phishing is an emergent crime in which victims are deceived during the course of a phone conversation. According to the crime statistics released by the Korean National Police Agency, over 4000 cases of voice phishing are committed per year and the cost per victim is over US$1000. However, because of its unique characteristics when compared with traditional fraud, few studies have been conducted on this subject. This is the first study assessing the modus operandi of voice phishing using crime script analysis. A total of 182 case files were analyzed, in addition to 229 posts in Internet portals. Moreover, 20 detectives in charge of voice phishing cases were consulted via in-depth interviews. The results showed that the preparation for phishing includes getting ready for the crime, recruiting telemarketers and creating the scripts. The next step involves randomly making international and Internet calls to a large number of people, which constitutes the major activity, while the post-activity involves the withdrawal and wiring of the money deposited by victims to the offenders. This research aimed to provide a foundation for future research on related crimes, including mutation phishing and pharming, and offer insights into effective policy implementation to control the crime by identifying its situational context and unique characteristics. © 2016 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.