Photo : YONHAP News
The volume of mobile phone spamming in South Korea hit a record high in the first eight months of the year.
According to data submitted to the National Assembly by the Korea Internet & Security Agency on Wednesday, 280-point-four million spam calls and text messages were reported or detected between January and August, up 68 percent from the same period last year.
The number is equivalent to 95 percent of mobile phone spams in all of last year.
Mobile phone spamming has been increasing annually.
In a comparison of just the first eight months of the year, that number grew from 27-point-seven million in 2022 to 167 million in 2023.
Communications service providers who take no action after becoming aware of illegal spam activity on their networks are subject to a fine of up to 30-million won, or 22-thousand-600 dollars, which has been criticized as inadequate.