The Broadcast Media and Communications Review Committee said on Oct. 15 it has demanded corrections since April for 71 impersonation websites that used other businesses' names and logos to masquerade as official homepages.

At its 47th meeting on the day, the committee's communications review subcommittee also reviewed two impersonation sites and voted to terminate their use and block access. It judged the sites to be illegal information in violation of the Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising and the Criminal Act.

The sites were found to have lured users by stealing the names, logos and business registration numbers of financial institutions, lottery operators and insurance agency operators, or by imitating their websites.

Some sites induced users to enter personal information, including names, resident registration numbers, contact details and bank account numbers, under the pretext of loan applications, membership sign-ups or consultation requests. Concerns have also been raised that this could lead to secondary damage such as personal data leaks and financial fraud.

Cases were confirmed in which a site impersonated a savings bank to promote a "telecommunications bill-secured loan" or imitated a lottery consignment operator's website to induce membership registration.

Kim Woo-seok (김우석), chair of the committee's communications review subcommittee, said, "Posting false information by stealing another business' information can cause enormous damage to legitimate businesses as well as users." He said the panel plans to "strictly review information that steals business information or engages in unfair labeling and advertising" to prevent related damage from spreading.