Account Frozen by Voice Phishing? Unjust Payment Suspension to Be Resolved Within 5 Days

Financial Supervisory Service Introduces New Review Deadline
and Streamlines Objection Handling Procedures

From now on, if the account holder of an account that has been unjustly suspended due to a unilateral deposit of voice phishing criminal funds files an objection with a bank or other financial institution, they will be notified of the review result within five business days. Previously, there was no separate processing deadline, so victims faced significant inconvenience due to long periods of restricted financial transactions; this is expected to be greatly alleviated going forward.

On May 3, the Financial Supervisory Service announced that, together with the banking sector, it will standardize the objection handling procedures for accounts suspended due to voice phishing, as outlined above.

This measure aims to reduce the damage caused by 'account blackmail,' a practice in which perpetrators intentionally transfer funds related to voice phishing to induce account suspension, and then demand money in exchange for lifting the suspension. Such practices have caused account holders to face months-long restrictions on their financial transactions.

First, when an account holder submits an objection to a financial institution, the institution is, in principle, required to complete the review within five business days. However, the account holder must prepare sufficient supporting documents. If additional documentation is needed, the review period may be extended by another five business days, and if further supplementation is required, it may be extended by an additional three business days. The account holder must submit the supplementary documents within the period specified by the financial institution.

In addition, for major types of objections, only the minimum supporting documents commonly required by financial institutions will need to be submitted, reducing the burden on account holders. Additional documents will only be requested if the initial evidence is insufficient, thereby streamlining the process.

In particular, small-amount deposit cases will be handled more quickly. If the deposited amount is small, there is no history of previous account suspensions, and the transaction details other than the deposited amount are clearly related to living expenses, a simplified review process will be applied. In such cases, the financial institution must promptly lift the suspension for all funds in the account except for the problematic deposit amount.

An official from the Financial Supervisory Service stated, "With this measure, the inconvenience of long-term financial transaction restrictions caused by account suspensions due to deposits of voice phishing criminal funds will be resolved promptly." The official added, "Starting in May, this improvement will first be implemented in the banking sector and will soon be expanded to other financial sectors as well."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.