South Korea's broadcasting and communications watchdog and the National Police Agency will block 179 new scam sites that have caused losses of more than 19 billion won.

The watchdog, the Broadcasting Media and Communications Deliberation Commission, said on Sunday it held a communications review subcommittee meeting and approved corrective orders, including service termination and access blocks, for 179 illegal scam sites. It said the decision followed a review request from the police task force for integrated 대응 to telecom-based financial fraud.

A police probe estimated the sites caused total losses of more than 19 billion won by using tactics such as investment "leading," team missions and romance-themed scams.

Investment-leading fraud involves setting up fake digital-asset exchanges or posting price information on financial products such as bitcoin. The sites are made to look like legitimate financial investment platforms and lure victims by guaranteeing high returns.

Team-mission scams posed as ordinary online shopping malls selling daily necessities or home appliances. They induced users to make payments by falsely claiming they would pay high returns for completing side-job tasks or purchase missions.

Romance-themed scams used a method of promoting arranged encounters or romantic relationships to induce sign-ups and payments before disappearing.

The watchdog and the police shared information on the status of new scam sites on July 21 and discussed joint response measures to curb the spread of scam information and prevent 피해.

Lee Yong-bae (이용배), director general of the watchdog's communications review bureau, said, "Scam sites are crimes that infringe on people's livelihoods by producing large numbers of victims and causing enormous property losses." He added, "We will work closely with the National Police Agency to quickly block illegal scam sites."

Oh Chang-bae (오창배), head of the police task force for integrated response to telecom-based financial fraud, said it had continuously detected illegal scam sites including investment-leading chatroom fraud, romance scams and team-mission scams in cooperation with related agencies such as the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) and telecom operators. He added, "We will prevent harm to the public through rapid detection and coordination with the review process."