South Korea's telecommunications industry has pushed back against discussions on extending no-fault compensation for voice phishing losses to telecom carriers. It says it is not appropriate to include telecoms as compensation payers because carriers have no authority to manage financial transactions or arbitrarily check call content.

On Sept. 30, the Korea Telecommunications Operators Association (KTOA) said it opposed a plan to make telecom carriers share no-fault compensation liability when voice phishing losses occur.

The National Assembly is currently discussing an amendment to the Telecommunications Fraud Loss Refund Act that would require financial companies to compensate all or part of losses from telecommunications-based financial fraud such as voice phishing even without fault. Some in the financial sector argue that because telecom carriers, investigative agencies and others participate together in crime prevention, carriers should also share compensation liability.

KTOA stressed that telecommunications are not the cause of voice phishing crimes but a channel for delivering information. It argued that actual transfers or withdrawals of stolen funds take place in the financial system, making such cases different from crimes caused by network defects or telecom service errors.

Telecom carriers do not directly create or manage the contents of communications exchanged by users, but deliver them. Under the Protection of Communications Secrets Act and other laws, they are also restricted from arbitrarily listening to or checking call or text content. KTOA said imposing no-fault compensation liability on carriers would effectively demand that they analyze call content in real time to determine whether it is fraudulent.

KTOA also said the legal roles of financial companies and telecom carriers differ. Under the Electronic Financial Transactions Act and other laws, financial companies protect customer assets, ensure transaction stability and manage fund flows and transaction approvals. Telecom carriers' main duties, by contrast, are providing stable telecom services and protecting communications secrecy.

It also cited overseas systems. KTOA said Britain introduced a compensation obligation scheme for APP (Authorised Push Payment) fraud in October 2024, but imposes compensation obligations only on financial institutions. Singapore's Shared Responsibility Framework (SRF) assigns prevention duties to financial companies and telecom carriers only for SMS phishing and holds them responsible only when those duties are violated.

The telecommunications industry stressed it is not denying responsibility to prevent voice phishing itself. Telecom carriers are implementing measures including real-time blocking of unregistered caller IDs, blocking spoofed international call numbers, filtering malicious internet addresses (URLs), AI-based voice phishing detection, suspension of lines used for crime and facial authentication when opening mobile phone accounts. The industry said it will continue to strengthen cooperation with the government and the financial sector on voice phishing prevention.