A high-ranking South Korean police official has laid out how his country's authorities are fighting online fraud, describing a strategy built on three core elements: prevention, arrests and international cooperation. He also detailed the outcomes of joint efforts 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 tackling cross-border crime during the International Conference on Combating Online Scams (ICCOS) on September 24.

Cutting off criminal tools

Kim said South Korea's first line of defence reaches beyond simply raising public awareness. Instead, authorities move quickly to shut down the resources criminals depend on — including fake phone numbers, harmful apps and bank accounts — before they can do more damage. A key part of this is an emergency system for blocking phone numbers.

"When a suspicious phone number is reported, the information is sent to the National Counter Scam Bureau for analysis. Working together with several telecommunication companies, the numbers confirmed to be used for crime are blocked within about 10 minutes," he explained.

He noted that between 500 and 1,000 phone numbers are shut down daily, adding up to roughly 300,000 over the previous ten months.

Linking cases to make arrests

The second element focuses on arrests. Investigators examine phone numbers, bank accounts and social media profiles to connect cases tied to the same criminal group, then bundle them together for a concentrated investigation. Kim said that in 2025, some 23,991 cases were traced back to 262 separate criminal operations.

Working across borders

The third element, cooperation, underscores the value of partnering with law enforcement worldwide, including in Cambodia, where South Korean officers have been working alongside a Special Task Force on Transnational Crime.

According to Kim, since the two countries signed a cooperation memorandum of understanding, 173 people connected to online scam operations have been returned to South Korea to face prosecution.

"These were Korea's largest repatriation operations of their kind. I would like to take this opportunity to once again express our sincere appreciation to the government of Cambodia and the Cambodian National Police," he said.

Kim reported that the three-part approach has already paid off, with voice phishing cases falling 43% and related financial losses dropping 49% in the first half of the year compared with the same period a year earlier.

New threats on the horizon

Even so, he cautioned that serious obstacles remain, particularly as artificial intelligence becomes more widespread.

"First, fraud enablers are becoming more sophisticated with AI such as AI-generated voices, videos and malicious applications. Second, crime is becoming increasingly borderless with criminal organisations operating and relocating across multiple countries," he said.

"Third, with the development of virtual assets the criminal proceeds are moving more freely and when the proceeds cross the border tracing becomes difficult," he added.

To meet these challenges, Kim called for fresh response strategies, broader joint prevention and enforcement efforts, faster action to disrupt the flow of illicit money, and stronger measures to help victims recover their losses.