South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has begun to overhaul the software used to refund money stolen through voice phishing.
As a result of these changes, starting in October, the software will be able to calculate and compensate for losses held in cryptocurrency, not just in won.
What changes are being made to the compensation system for voice phishing victims?
The calculation system of South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), which returns stolen money to victims of phishing scams, is based on the assumption that the victim's stolen funds were in Korean won, preventing it from fully compensating people whose money was exchanged for digital assets or received in cryptocurrency.
The new software system will apply a refund rate, determining the specific type and quantity of tokens owed to each victim, as well as the value of the won-denominated tokens at the time of payment freeze.
The system is also being revamped to identify cases where fraud proceeds are distributed across multiple accounts and then consolidated back, and to pre-calculate claims in batches rather than individually. Victims will see the token name, quantity, and frozen-time value in the notifications they receive.
The changes are linked to amendments to the Act on Compensation for Telecommunications Fraud Damage made on March 31, which include virtual assets as both damaged property and property subject to compensation.
The amendment also means that platforms such as Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and GOPAX will now be obligated to comply with the same anti-phishing and victim assistance requirements as banks. They must verify transaction purposes, track suspicious phishing funds, block payments to suspicious accounts, and assist in returning assets to victims.
When will the new FSS rules take effect?
The Tax Refund Act is set to take effect from October 1, but the Financial Supervisory Service will work on its system from September to the end of November, taking approximately three months and supported by a budget of 118.53 million won.
The regulator stated it has set a three-month period to resolve any malfunctions or make any additional fixes that may arise after the system launch.
The amendment to the refund act followed a series of cases where stolen money was intentionally transferred through cryptocurrency to be taken out of the country. Recently, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) warned of a scheme where fraudsters take over the bank accounts of low-credit borrowers under the guise of a loan, purchase large quantities of gift certificates with the deposited funds, cash them out, convert the cash to cryptocurrency, and transfer it to organizers abroad.
According to the Act on Financial Transactions, transferring a bank passbook or debit card by itself can result in up to five years imprisonment or a fine of up to 30 million won, or approximately $21,600 USD.
Notably, according to data from the Financial Supervisory Service, losses from telecommunications fraud in the country increased by 14.1% to 433.8 billion won in 2025, reaching the highest level in the past five years.
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