Messenger Phishing Modus Operandi in South Korea
Yeon-Jun Choi, Choi Seoung-Won · 한국치안행정논집 · 2021
The purpose of this study is to identify the messenger phishing modus operandi in South Korea. Messenger phishing is a serious crime in which offenders make profits by deceiving victims through messenger conversations, and the damage is increasing each day. Despite the seriousness of messenger phishing, existing research has not clarified the sequence of processes by which it occurs. To fill this gap, the researchers collected messenger phishing cases in open spaces to secure a sufficient number of vivid damage cases and employed content analysis and crime script analysis. The findings demonstrated that the messenger phishing modus operandi consists of preparation, developing specific plans, sending a phishing message without revealing one’s identity, explaining the urgency of the situation to the target, requesting money from the target, and acquiring the target’s money. In particular, there were four main techniques used by criminals to acquire the target’s money: requesting remittance to the account presented by the offender, requesting PINs for gift certificates after their purchase, inducing installation of a remote-control application on the target’s smartphone, and requesting sensitive information. Further, based on these results, this study suggested preventive measures against messenger phishing using situational crime prevention techniques.