“Voice phishing is about empathizing with the other person. Voice phishing does not dig into people’s ignorance, but dig into the persons’ hopes and fears. This difference determines whether it is 100 million or 1 billion.” It is one of the lines from the movie Voice, which was released in September this year. Voice is a criminal film that shows the techniques of voice phishing scammers who commit crimes in the dark corners of the world, and alerts people to the dangers of phishing. The negative effects of voice phishing crimes are increasing day by day, as seen in the movie released this year. According to statistical data released by the National Police Agency (2016-2020), the number of voice phishing cases (including institution impersonation and loan fraud) doubled from 17,040 in 2016 to 31,681 in 2020, and the damage more than quadrupled from 146.8 billion won in 2016 to 700 billion won in 2020. In this issue, CBT reporters looked into the psychological state in which voice phishing victims are manipulated and the psychology of scammers transmitted from their voices.
  According to the Financial Supervisory Service (2018), scammers are intentionally stimulating the victims’ emotions, putting them in a state of ‘cognitive saver’, a state of making easy judgement based on limited information and time, and allowing the scammers to commit crimes. It has the advantage of being able to get answers quickly without much effort when making important decisions, while at the same time also leading to wrong choices. According to Han Chi-hoon who did her master’s thesis at Yonsei University’s Graduate School of Information on this topic, the voice of scammers beyond the phone was found to be different from that of the general public. CBT reporters consulted Professor Park Sang-hee, who is in charge of social psychology at Department of Psychology, for a detailed analysis of psychology in voice phishing.
  Phishing is a compound word that refers to the unlawful acquisition of personal information. It is a fraudulent method of extorting other people’s property after stealing their personal or financial information via telephonic devices, fake websites, and corrupted applications. Phishing includes voice phishing, which person know well, messenger phishing, phishing sites, body cam phishing, spear phishing, and cueing. Scammers may impersonate acquaintances to request the installation of apps and steal identification information under the pretext of a cell phone failure. They also demand money by impersonating institutions such as lawyers and prosecutors. Recently, they use the COVID-19 situation to send voice phishing messages under the guise of disaster support funds and vaccination centers. They may demand a donation due to a lack of funds for purchasing masks and hand sanitizers. The number of people who are aware of the dangers of voice phishing crimes is increasing. However, the damage has not been reduced, because of more advanced criminal skills, and measures that have not yet been properly understood and countered.
  When asked, “Voice phishing scammers have less energy and faster utterance than ordinary people, what kind of criminal psychology can people identify from this information?” Professor Park replied, “When scammers lie, they focus on hiding their lies and making others believe their words, so they speak more unnatural than when telling the truth. It can come out in the form of smooth speech that’s faster, and more nervous.” However, he pointed out that it is difficult to notice that the other person is lying because the general public is not well aware of this difference. As a solution to combat voice phishing, CBT reporters asked the professor what people should do to quickly get out of the ‘cognitive saver’ state. Professor Park said, “One of the reasons for becoming a cognitive saver is the emotional experience and physiological awakening associated with it. Therefore, no matter how much a scammer says a big accident has occurred or induces a person to answer quickly, the person needs to be calm. Also, in order to prevent being trapped in the frame of thought by scammers, it is necessary to continue to doubt, like “Isn’t this person wrong?”, “What evidence is there of this person’s words?” and “Of course, it’s not easy to do this.”
  As the professor said, it is not easy to maintain rationality during phone calls or contacts with phishing scammers. Director Kim Gok of the movie Voice said, “The difference between voice phishing criminals and existing criminals is that they are not just gangsters, but situational directors,” and added, “The victims are stating that they were possessed by something.” Therefore, as detective Lee Kyu-ho shouted in the movie Voice, “It’s not your fault!” People should not blame themselves for being a victim. According to data from the National Police Agency, damage because of voice phishing crimes in the 20s is steadily occurring. Adult college students are often misled by part-time and short-term part-time jobs and are often unwittingly used as props in phishing scams. The police explained that the number of incidents in which college students are involved in impersonating institutions or police crimes is also steady. Through this article, CBT reporters hope that students at CBNU should be careful not to be caught up in voice phishing crimes.

By Kim Ji-Soo l sixteen@cbnu.ac.kr
By Kang Min-ji | mj41@cbnu.ac.kr