Limits set amid surge in secondhand-market scams

Accounts closed within 3 business days require branch visit

Products with monthly cap under 1 million won exempt

[Yonhap]
[Yonhap]

The Financial Supervisory Service is overhauling the rules for opening and closing flexible savings accounts, which have been exploited in online merchandise fraud. The centerpiece of the reform is a cap limiting each person to a maximum of three flexible savings accounts per quarter at any single financial institution.

The FSS said Wednesday it would improve the flexible savings account system covering banks, savings banks and mutual financial institutions — including cooperatives under the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives, National Forestry Cooperative Federation and credit unions — to protect consumers from online merchandise fraud.

Unlike regular demand-deposit accounts, flexible savings accounts had no restrictions on how many could be opened in a short period, making them attractive to fraudsters. Demand-deposit accounts are in principle limited to one new account across all financial institutions within 20 business days, but flexible savings accounts faced no such constraint. Scammers typically opened large numbers of flexible savings accounts online in a matter of days, collected payments from unsuspecting victims and then closed the accounts early to withdraw the cash.

In one documented case, a fraudster posted fake listings on a secondhand trading platform and opened 32 flexible savings accounts online over three days, stealing 120 million won ($78,100) from 126 victims. In another, a scammer opened 13 accounts over two days and defrauded 80 victims of about 70 million won. Concert tickets, professional baseball tickets and electronics were among the most common items used as bait.

In response, the FSS will limit each person to a maximum of three flexible savings accounts per quarter — including any accounts closed early — at each financial institution. Customers who need additional accounts may open them by visiting a branch in person. To block the withdrawal of fraudulent proceeds, the FSS is also changing procedures so that any flexible savings account closed within three business days of opening can only be closed at a branch.

However, products considered low-risk for criminal abuse may still be opened and closed freely as before. These include products with a monthly deposit limit of 1 million won or less, and products that only accept deposits from the account holder's own account at the same institution. The FSS said 87.2 percent of flexible savings accounts at banks and 85.3 percent at savings banks and mutual financial institutions — based on data from January 2025 to January 2026 — meet these criteria and will be unaffected.

The FSS will also strengthen anti-money laundering measures. Banks and savings banks will be encouraged to actively gather fraud-related information and link it to their abnormal financial transaction detection systems, ensuring enhanced due diligence is applied whenever a flexible savings account is suspected of being misused. The FSS also plans to build a monitoring framework that includes reviewing the adequacy of suspicious transaction screening criteria and actively reporting suspicious transactions to the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit.

The FSS and the Korean National Police Agency issued a consumer alert in April 2024 regarding secondhand-market fraud involving flexible savings accounts and provided guidance through major secondhand trading sites on how to identify savings account numbers by bank.

"Banks, savings banks and mutual financial institutions plan to implement these measures during the third quarter after updating their operational procedures and IT systems," an FSS official said. "We also plan to share cases of money laundering concerns related to flexible savings accounts and provide guidance on the need to strengthen internal anti-money laundering controls."

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