The Financial Supervisory Service on Thursday warned that even foreigners who are accomplices to voice phishing crimes will be subject to punishment amid escalating financial crimes.

Announcing a plan to tighten its grip over bank account transactions, the watchdog shared campaign materials -- in Korean and Chinese -- to help prevent voice phishing, reflecting the involvement of Chinese and Korean Chinese in such crimes.

Recently, an increasing number of foreigners were caught for participating in voice phishing as directed by criminal organizations.

As of October, foreigners accounted for 4.1 percent of the 54,364 cases of fraudulent savings and checking accounts here, FSS data showed.

Most turned out to have been enticed via online or social media advertisements that offered them commissions for the successful withdrawal or transfer of money.

By age group, those in their 30s accounted for 37.7 percent, followed by those in their 20s or younger. In terms of regions, Seoul marked 40 percent, followed by Gyeonggi Province and Incheon with 25.7 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively.

“As voice phishing crimes have risen to be a major social problem, judicial authorities tend to hand down severe punishments even to accomplices, depending on the amount of damages, the existence of commissions and the repetitiveness of the wrongdoings,” the FSS said in a release.

By Jie Ye-eun (yeeun@heraldcorp.com)