The government urged special caution after warning that various smishing attacks are expected in connection with "high oil price relief grants."

Results from a crackdown last year on smishing linked to consumer coupons for a livelihood recovery programme showed 430 smishing attempts, including lures to illegal gambling sites and prompts to install malicious apps aimed at stealing personal information.

The government, card firms and local currency operators will not send any text messages or SNS messages that include URLs related to the high oil price relief grants to prevent smishing 피해 in advance. They also do not plan to provide banner links or app push functions that have similar features to URLs.

The government stressed that people should actively use the People's Secretary advance notification service to prevent smishing 피해. If a message or alert has an unclear source or contains a URL, people should not click it and should review it carefully. People can also check whether it is smishing through the "smishing verification service" provided by the Korea Internet & Security Agency, and can receive 상담 through the 118 call center. If 피해 occurs, people can report it to the National Police Agency 신고 response center.

The government is also sequentially sending smishing prevention text messages in the name of each telecom carrier starting 10 days before applications and payments for the high oil price relief grants, to raise user awareness. It will include smishing warning text on the non-face-to-face application page for the grants. It will also provide smishing cautions alongside in-person applications through banks and community service centers for digitally vulnerable groups such as older people.

It also plans to strengthen smishing monitoring through the National Police Agency, the Financial Supervisory Service and the Korea Internet & Security Agency, and to run a rapid response system, including immediately launching investigations when damage is reported.