Total losses from voice phishing in the first half of 2018: 180.2 billion won
SKT and FSS Sign MOU for AI Technology Development and Adoption
Launched AI voice phishing prevention service in 2019

SK Telecom announced on the 17th that it will work with the Financial Supervisory Service to develop and introduce AI technology to prevent voice phishing damage.
At the signing ceremony held at the SK Telecom building in Euljiro on this day, officials from both sides, including Kim Su-heon, Director of the Financial Supervisory Service’s Illegal Financial Activities Response Team, and Jang Yu-seong, Head of SK Telecom’s AI/Mobility Business Unit, agreed to work together to solve the rapidly evolving problem of voice phishing by utilizing AI technology.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service, voice phishing methods are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and the scale of damage is rapidly increasing. The amount of damage caused by voice phishing in the first half of 2018 was 180.2 billion won, an increase of 73.7% compared to the first half of 2017, indicating a situation requiring active response.

Accordingly, SK Telecom and the Financial Supervisory Service pursued this collaboration based on the idea that utilizing AI could significantly reduce fraud damages by enabling real-time determination of voice phishing.

By utilizing AI, unlike existing filtering methods that check for voice phishing based on the use of specific words, it is possible to determine phishing based solely on the context of a sentence, thereby enabling more accurate and efficient blocking of financial fraud.

To this end, SK Telecom plans to develop AI technology that notifies users in real time when voice phishing is suspected during a voice call, and the Financial Supervisory Service plans to support the advancement of this technology by providing data related to voice phishing fraud.

Both parties plan to complete the development of the related technology in early 2019 and launch the service during the first half of the year.

Kim Soo-heon, Director General of the Financial Supervisory Service, stated, “We expect that applying AI technology during the call phase, where voice phishing scams occur, will have a significant effect in preventing damage,” adding, “We will actively cooperate to ensure that the efforts of both agencies bear fruit and voice phishing scams are eradicated.”

Jang Yu-seong, Head of SK Telecom’s AI/Mobility Business Unit, stated, “We have partnered with the Financial Supervisory Service to eradicate voice phishing damage using AI,” adding, “Going forward, we will continue to introduce various technologies and services that leverage ICT to protect consumers and realize social value.”