The occurrence of online loan fraud due to personal information theft

It has recently come to light that someone used another person's personal information to take out a loan amounting to tens of millions of won through a non-face-to-face method at a local agricultural cooperative, even opening an overdraft account.

This case is suspected to involve financial fraud through forged identification, and it is reported that police and financial authorities have commenced a thorough investigation.

According to a report by YTN on the 20th, Mr. A received a bank text message in June indicating that a previously unseen mobile phone bill of 30,000 won was automatically withdrawn from his account.

He reported the suspicion of identity theft, but by that time, the perpetrator had already opened two additional mobile phone accounts in Mr. A's name.

Mr. A's son explained the situation at the time, stating, "I was told that since the bill was being withdrawn from a budget phone, I should report it just in case there was identity theft."

This incident led to large-scale financial fraud beyond mere identity theft of a mobile phone.

The perpetrator used the illegally opened mobile phones to obtain a non-face-to-face loan from the local agricultural cooperative where Mr. A usually transacted. A loan of 45 million won was made, secured against Mr. A's deposit of 50 million won, which Mr. A learned about only later.

What is even more shocking is that an overdraft account was opened in Mr. A's name, from which 7 million won was withdrawn in seven instances. Later, it was confirmed that 7.1 million won had been deposited back into the account.

Mr. A's son expressed his astonishment, stating, "My mother has never transferred her identification to another person or lost her ID," highlighting the bewildering nature of these events that unfolded without their knowledge.

Financial security system breached by forged identification

The agricultural cooperative revealed through an internal investigation that a forged ID was likely used. It appears that someone took out a loan and opened an overdraft account using a fake ID through the cooperative’s mobile banking application.

Upon comparing Mr. A’s legitimate ID with the forged one used in the crime, differences were found in several aspects, including the type of license and issuing authority. Notably, the address listed on the forged ID was confirmed to be nonexistent in the Republic of Korea.

The perpetrator seemingly deceived the system by utilizing poorly forged identification along with Mr. A’s mobile phone and account information to obtain the loan under Mr. A's name.

In this context, the financial institution's non-face-to-face transaction system failed to properly verify the identification information, which differed from the actual details.

In response to this incident, a representative from the local agricultural cooperative where Mr. A conducts business stated to YTN, "Everything is integrated into the cooperative's data center. Therefore, there is not much I can say from the branch's perspective."

As police and financial authorities work to ascertain the precise circumstances of the incident, there is an urgent need for comprehensive security enhancements within non-face-to-face financial transaction systems.

Naver TV 'News is YTN'

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