South Korean Police Detail Three-Pillar Strategy Against Online Scams, Report 173 Suspects Repatriated from Cambodia

A top South Korean police official has outlined how the country's law enforcement agencies are tackling online fraud through a comprehensive strategy built on three pillars: prevention, arrests, and international cooperation.

Senior Superintendent Kim Hyun Soo, who heads the Economic Crime Investigation Division at the Korean National Police Agency, presented Seoul's framework for fighting transnational crime at the International Conference on Combating Online Scams (ICCOS) on September 24.

Prevention Through Rapid Disruption

Kim explained that South Korea's prevention efforts go well beyond public education campaigns. Authorities focus on quickly shutting down the tools criminals rely on — including fraudulent phone numbers, malicious apps, and compromised bank accounts — before additional victims are harmed.

A key example is the country's emergency phone number blocking system. When a suspicious number is flagged, it is forwarded to the National Counter Scam Bureau for review. In coordination with telecommunications providers, numbers confirmed to be linked to criminal activity are disabled within approximately 10 minutes.

Kim noted that between 500 and 1,000 numbers are blocked daily, with roughly 300,000 shut down over the past 10 months.

Targeted Arrests Through Data Analysis

The second pillar centers on apprehending criminals. By examining phone records, banking data, and social media activity, investigators identify cases connected to the same criminal networks and consolidate them for focused prosecution. In 2025 so far, authorities have linked 23,991 individual cases to 262 distinct operations.

International Cooperation Yields Major Results

The third element of the strategy emphasizes partnerships with foreign law enforcement. South Korea has been working closely with Cambodian authorities through a Special Task Force on Transnational Crime. Since a cooperation memorandum of understanding was signed between the two countries, 173 members of online scam rings have been sent back to South Korea to face prosecution.

Kim described these as the largest repatriation operations of their kind in South Korean history and expressed deep gratitude to the Cambodian government and its national police force.

Measurable Progress, but Growing Threats

The three-pronged approach appears to be paying off. Voice phishing incidents fell by 43 percent in the first half of this year compared to the same period in the prior year, while associated financial losses dropped by 49 percent.

However, Kim cautioned that significant challenges lie ahead. He pointed to three emerging threats:

• Criminals are leveraging artificial intelligence to create more convincing deepfake voices, videos, and sophisticated malicious applications.
• Criminal organizations are increasingly operating across borders and frequently relocating between countries to evade law enforcement.
• The rise of virtual assets is enabling illicit proceeds to move more freely, making cross-border tracing far more difficult.

To address these evolving risks, Kim called for the development of new response strategies, expanded joint prevention efforts and multinational operations, faster disruption of criminal money flows, and stronger measures to help victims recover their losses.