1. Pause
While the pressure is high, don't click, install, reply, transfer, or share anything more.
Safety hub
Scam Safety in Korea
Calm, plain checklists for suspicious calls, links, texts, and money requests. When it's urgent, use the official reporting and support channels below.
What are you dealing with?
Start with what the message or caller wants you to do
Staying safe isn't about guessing perfectly. It's about slowing down the moment someone asks for money, passwords, your ID, an app, remote control, secrecy, or speed.
A message wants me to install an app
That's a big red flag — especially when it comes wrapped in bank, delivery, loan, refund, or official-threat wording.
Check warning signs
Someone wants money, right now
Stop before you transfer anything under pressure, secrecy, or a story about investments, a job, or support money.
Use checklist
I can't read the Korean wording
Look up the banking, verification, support-payment, loan, or transfer terms before you reply or tap through.
Translate terms
I already clicked, paid, or shared something
Stop where you are, save the evidence, and reach official channels you look up yourself.
Read emergency steps
Three steps, in order
2. Check it yourself
Use an official app, website, branch, or number you look up — never the link or number in the message.
3. Escalate if needed
If money, passwords, IDs, OTPs, cards, or apps are in play, contact the bank, service, or official channel directly.
Emergency first
If this might already be happening
If money, passwords, ID documents, a remote-control app, or an official-sounding threat is involved, stop before your next step and use official channels you've looked up yourself. We can't provide emergency support or confirm a case.
You already sent money
Don't send any more. Save the messages, account details, receipts, and timestamps, then reach your bank or transfer provider through their official app, website, branch, or a number you already trust.
You installed an app or clicked a link
Don't enter anything else. If you safely can, cut off any remote-control access, avoid the numbers and links in the message, and get device or account help through official support.
You shared a password, OTP, ID, or card detail
Change your passwords from a device you trust, contact the bank or service directly, and ask what account locks, card blocks, or reporting steps are available.
Someone claims to be an official
Hang up or stop replying, then check on your own. Real officials don't need secrecy, a remote-control app, your password or OTP, or an urgent transfer through a message link.
Official contact points in Korea
112
Police emergency help
For immediate police help or urgent crime reporting. With financial scams, a police report is often part of the response.
1332
Financial consumer counseling
The Financial Supervisory Service call center for financial consumer counseling and voice-phishing guidance.
118
Cyber, spam, and smishing help
KISA runs 118 for cyber incidents, spam, smishing, and related online-safety questions.
Hours, language support, and exact handling can vary. Use official websites or numbers you've verified yourself where you can.
Featured tool
Suspicious Message Checklist
Tick off the common warning signs in a Korean text, chat, email, or call.
Start here
Pause before you pay
Run a quick warning-sign check before acting on a threat, a prize, a delivery notice, or a fake loan.
Go to the official channel
Use a website, app, or number you look up yourself — not the link in the message.
Popular guides
Suspicious SMS checklist
Check the sender, the links, the pressure, the money ask, and any app to install.
Voice phishing basics
Spot the pressure tactics and verify on your own before you act.
Checklist / FAQ
If you clicked a link
Stop entering anything, don't install apps, and reach official support channels.
Can this site confirm a scam?
No. It's general education — not an official investigation or emergency support.
Why trust this site
- Built from real Korean bank-counter experience and financial-software work
- Grounded in public information and general financial knowledge
- An independent educational site
- No private systems, non-public materials, or customer data involved
- Not financial, tax, legal, housing, security, or product advice
- Updated regularly
High-risk requests
The asks that should make you stop
A message doesn't have to hit every warning sign to be dangerous. If money, ID, apps, passwords, or secrecy come up, pause and check on your own.
- Install an app — a "security" app, remote-control app, certificate app, or an APK file.
- Send money fast to protect an account, prove your innocence, claim a refund, or unlock support money.
- Hand over an OTP, certificate password, card details, ID or passport photo, or a screen from your bank app.
- Keep the call secret from your family, school, employer, bank, or the police.
- Lend, sell, rent, or receive money through your account, card, virtual account, or wallet.
- Move the conversation off an official channel onto a private messenger or an unfamiliar link.
Evidence to save
Save the details before they vanish
Saving evidence won't guarantee you get money back, but it helps banks, providers, police, or official channels understand what happened.
- The phone number, sender ID, profile name, account number, and recipient name.
- Screenshots of the messages, links, app names, documents, and payment instructions.
- Transfer receipts, timestamps, bank app records, and provider transaction IDs.
- What you clicked, installed, typed, uploaded, or shared.
- Which bank, card company, phone company, platform, school, employer, or office may need to know.
- Anything your device started doing differently after you installed an app or clicked a link.