The Korea Communications Commission and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) on May 14 released their report on spam distribution in the second half of 2025. The survey was conducted last November among 3,000 mobile phone and email users nationwide aged 12 to 69.

The report said the average monthly number of spam received per user was 10.35 messages, up 2.44 messages, or 30.8 percent, from 7.91 in the first half. The rise was driven by voice spam, which doubled to 4.26 messages from 2.13. The commission analysed the increase as stemming from expanded voice-call marketing, including solicitations to sign up for telecom services by related distributors, after the July repeal of the Mobile Handset Distribution Improvement Act.

Text spam, by contrast, averaged 2.74 messages per user per month, down 0.30 from 3.04 in the first half, continuing a downward trend. Reported and detected cases of text spam also fell sharply to 12.88 million from 31.93 million, down 19.05 million, or 59.7 percent.

Total reported and detected spam cases came to 23.67 million, down 15.16 million, or 39.0 percent, from 38.83 million in the first half. Reported and detected voice spam rose by 2.87 million to 8.73 million from 5.86 million, but the overall figure fell as text spam declined sharply.

The commission and KISA said they will publish the results on their website and work with telecommunications carriers and handset makers to boost blocking and reporting of voice spam. They also plan to produce videos and images to promote reporting methods such as simple reporting on mobile phones and a simple-reporting app.

Kim Jong-cheol (김종철), chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, said it was meaningful that the public and private sectors worked together to keep cutting text spam. He said the commission will move quickly to implement a newly introduced sender qualification certification system and a scheme to claw back unjust gains linked to illegal spam to create an environment in which people can use digital services more safely.