According to Yonhap News Agency, fake accounts impersonating well-known financial figures in South Korea—including Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Hyun Song Shin—have recently appeared one after another on social networking services (SNS). They lure users into illegal stock-picking groups by promoting “interpreting economic trends,” thereby inducing stock investment and soliciting personal information. Although South Korea’s central bank has urgently intervened and pushed for the takedown of related accounts, some lead-generation groups still continue to operate covertly on platforms such as Telegram. Data disclosed by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) show that investment fraud crimes targeting celebrities are occurring frequently. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, there were 6,769 such investment-fraud phishing cases in South Korea, involving losses of 181.7 billion won (about $130 million). In 2025, the total amount involved for the full year reached 391.6 billion won.