Bithumb Receives Police Citation for Helping Prevent Crypto Phishing Losses

Bithumb, a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, said June 5 that it had received a citation from the Korean National Police Agency in recognition of its efforts to help prevent crypto phishing losses.

The exchange accepted the citation on June 4 at a memorandum of understanding signing ceremony held between the National Office of Investigation and domestic cryptocurrency exchanges. The award recognized Bithumb's successful establishment and operation of a real-time coordination system to prevent phishing crimes.

Since March, Bithumb has operated a preemptive cooperation system that immediately matches information from the police agency's integrated response unit on users who installed malicious apps with its member data and flags them for monitoring. Through the system, the exchange notified police in real time about 66 users with suspicious transactions and helped prevent about $580,000 in phishing losses.

In one case, Bithumb and police blocked a customer from purchasing and withdrawing about $109,000 worth of cryptocurrency after the user was infected with a malicious app and deceived by criminals impersonating government officials. In another, the exchange detected suspicious activity when a victim misled by financial scammers opened a new account and tried to transfer about $64,000, preventing so-called self-confinement damage.

Bithumb said the award would help deepen its data-sharing system with the Korean National Police Agency on phishing crimes while speeding up upgrades to its own security systems and investor protection measures.

The exchange currently runs a security system that automatically restricts trading when a remote-control app is detected during app use. It is also developing an upgraded system that will automatically send warnings and limit service access when a malicious app is detected. Bithumb has also conducted campaigns such as an Information Security Day campaign and a financial fraud prevention campaign to raise users' security awareness.

Byun Seung-moo, Bithumb's compliance officer, said the company has continued upgrading its security systems to detect phishing-site inducements and suspicious transactions at an early stage to provide a safer virtual-asset trading environment. It will keep working with the Korean National Police Agency to build a faster and more advanced response system and strengthen user protection, he added.