The government has decided to confiscate proceeds from illegal spam crimes and impose fines on businesses that fail to implement spam prevention measures. On the 28th, Kim Tae-kyu, acting chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, held a briefing at the Seoul Government Complex to announce a comprehensive government plan to prevent illegal spam.
According to the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Communications Commission, about 210 million spam reports were received in the first half of this year, and in June alone, 47 million reports were received, the highest on record. Following an emergency inspection, it was found that most of the illegal spam was sent via mass messaging services.
In response, the government decided to strengthen countermeasures for all stages, from sending to receiving illegal spam.
Firstly, they plan to amend the Information and Communications Network Act to confiscate the proceeds from malicious spam activities, aiming to seize unfair gains by designating these activities as subject to confiscation and forfeiture.
Fines will also be imposed on mobile carriers, message brokers, and resellers who neglect their duties or allow illegal spam activities to continue. In addition, considering the saturation of message resellers, there will be a mandatory certification of qualifications for mass messaging senders, and problematic businesses will be expelled from the market.
Furthermore, they will enhance both institutional and technical systems to block illegal spam by preventing the forgery of message-sending numbers. A spam message number account management system will be established so that messaging service providers can verify the validity of sending numbers and messaging service accounts.
Additionally, a dual blocking system will be prepared by mobile carriers to preemptively block receiving messages from forged sending numbers. Moreover, users of mass messaging services will be required to undergo identity verification each time they send a message.
Kim Tae-kyu stated, “We will continuously promote institutional and technical measures to create a safe digital environment by eradicating illegal spam.”