A top South Korean police official has laid out how the country tackles online fraud, describing a strategy built on three core elements: prevention, arrests and international cooperation. He also detailed the outcomes of joint work with Cambodian authorities.

Senior Superintendent Kim Hyun Soo, who heads the Economic Crime Investigation Division at the Korean National Police Agency, presented Seoul's methods for fighting cross-border crime at the International Conference on Combating Online Scams (ICCOS), held on September 24.

Prevention Through Rapid Blocking

According to Kim, South Korea's first line of defence extends well beyond raising public awareness. It focuses on quickly cutting off the tools criminals rely on — including fake phone numbers, harmful apps and bank accounts — before they can do more damage. A key example is an emergency system for blocking phone numbers.

"When a suspicious phone number is reported, the details are forwarded to the National Counter Scam Bureau for review. In partnership with several telecom firms, numbers verified as being used for crime are shut down within roughly 10 minutes," he explained.

He noted that between 500 and 1,000 numbers are blocked daily, adding up to about 300,000 over the past ten months.

Arrests Through Case Linking

The second pillar centres on making arrests. By examining phone numbers, bank accounts and social media profiles, investigators identify cases tied to the same criminal group and merge them for a more focused inquiry. Kim said that in 2025, some 23,991 cases were connected to 262 distinct operations.

International Cooperation

The third element, cooperation, underscores the value of working alongside partners abroad — including Cambodia, where South Korean officers collaborate with a Special Task Force on Transnational Crime.

Kim said that since a cooperation memorandum was signed with Cambodia, 173 people involved in online scam networks have been returned to South Korea to face prosecution.

"These were the largest repatriation operations of their kind for Korea. I would like to once again sincerely thank the government of Cambodia and the Cambodian National Police," he said.

Results and Emerging Threats

Kim said the three-pillar approach has produced encouraging results, with voice phishing cases falling by 43% and financial losses by 49% in the first half of the year compared with the same stretch a year earlier.

Still, he cautioned that significant hurdles remain, particularly as artificial intelligence becomes more widespread.

"First, those enabling fraud are growing more advanced through AI, using AI-generated voices, videos and malicious apps. Second, crime is becoming increasingly borderless, with criminal groups operating and shifting across multiple countries," he said.

"Third, as virtual assets develop, criminal profits move more easily, and once those proceeds cross borders they become much harder to trace," he added.

To meet these challenges, Kim called for fresh response strategies, broader joint prevention efforts and operations, faster disruption of criminal money flows, and stronger measures to help victims recover their losses.