[Gettyimages Bank]
State data showed there are about 68.6 million mobile phones active in South Korea with a population of 51.7 million. According to data released by the Korea Telecommunications Commission, a state internet and telecom watchdog, South Korean businessmen receive at least one spam call a day.
By type, calls made to advertise illegal gambling were the most reported with 6.7 million cases, followed by spam calls advertising loans with 4.5 million and telemarketing calls with 2.5 million, Whowho&Company, the spam call prevention app run by the country's biggest telecom operator KT, said in a report on Tuesday.
The top three types of spam calls accounted for about 62 percent of the total. The operators of spam calls, also known as "robocalls," indiscriminately make calls to mobile phone numbers to promote or advertise products.
Spam calls are different from voice phishing, a type of telephone scam that illegally lures people to send money into other people's bank accounts or participate in crimes without realizing the actual situation.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
