South Korea’s Gyeonggi provincial government has launched a public employee-verification service to help businesses and residents check whether someone requesting money or goods actually works for the administration.
The service compares a claimed employee’s department, name, telephone number and email address with provincial personnel records. If any field does not match, the system tells the user that the details do not correspond to a current provincial employee and directs suspected impersonation cases to the government’s 031-120 contact number.
The province recorded 183 attempted scams impersonating its officials from 2025 through September 2026. Thirteen cases resulted in financial losses totaling 351.7 million won.
Officials say perpetrators have used forged business cards and official-looking documents to approach companies that previously traded with the government or public institutions. Publicly available contract information helps them identify targets. The requests can involve buying goods on another party’s behalf, advance payments or covering purported expenses.
The verification menu is available through the organizational chart in the provincial website’s About Gyeonggi section. It began operating on September 21 after the government issued an impersonation warning last October and incorporated residents’ suggestions into the service.
A matching record is not the end of the check. The province advises users to call the employee through the official contact information supplied by the system before proceeding with a transaction. That step connects the request to the actual official, rather than relying only on details printed on a business card.
South Korea has separately tightened identity checks in telecommunications to address fraud committed through falsely registered mobile lines. Its optional facial-verification process for mobile sign-ups sits alongside alternatives that include a government-issued mobile identity application.
That policy followed civil-rights objections to mandatory biometric enrollment, including concerns about user choice and the sensitivity of facial data. Gyeonggi’s new service instead checks claimed employment and contact details against government records.
The province is asking anyone receiving a suspicious procurement or payment request to verify it before transferring money or purchasing goods. The portal and provincial call center provide two routes for checking the identity being presented, with direct contact through an official number recommended even when the initial record lookup succeeds.
Sources: Gyeonggi Province
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
