The Broadcasting Media and Communications Committee said on Sept. 17 it is urging users to be cautious ahead of the Chuseok holiday about bait text messages impersonating gift deliveries or benefits.

Bamitoingwi said it is concerned about texts that lure users to access internet addresses (URLs) with messages such as “A gift has arrived, enter delivery information,” “Chuseok event” and “holiday benefit.”

Such bait texts cause harm by prompting users to enter personal and financial information, such as addresses and bank account numbers, or by luring them into installing malicious apps. The malicious apps can remotely control phones and send illegal spam without the user’s knowledge, which could lead to further damage.

Bamitoingwi said it asked carriers and handset makers such as Samsung Electronics, together with the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), to strengthen intelligent spam filtering.

Users can check whether messages are legitimate on KakaoTalk’s “Bohan Nara” channel if the source is unclear or a URL is included. They can verify whether a message is malicious by copying and pasting a suspicious text or scanning a QR code.

Android smartphone users can block the installation of apps from unknown sources by enabling the “automatic blocking of security risks” function in the settings menu.

If users receive illegal spam, they can report it to KISA through the simple reporting app for illegal spam or a phone’s simple reporting function.