You may need a consultation if
- You sent your debit card and password by courier after being told you would get a loan
- Someone asked to borrow your account to build up a transaction record, and you agreed
- You were offered a certain amount per day to lend your card
- Your account was suddenly frozen, and you were told to appear for violating the Electronic Financial Transactions Act
- You handed over your certificate and OTP at an acquaintance's request
Relevant Laws
Electronic Financial Transactions Act (전자금융거래법) Article 6(3)
Prohibits transferring or receiving access media (접근매체), lending, keeping or delivering them while giving, receiving, demanding or promising payment, lending them knowing they will be used in a crime, and arranging or advertising such acts.
Electronic Financial Transactions Act Article 49(4)
A person who, in violation of Article 6(3), transfers, receives, lends, keeps, delivers or circulates access media, or provides account information knowing it will be used in a crime, is punished by up to 5 years' imprisonment or a fine of up to KRW 30 million, and imprisonment and a fine can be imposed together (paragraph 8 of the same Article).
Telecommunications Fraud Refund Act (통신사기피해환급법) Article 13-2
If the holder of a frozen account receives a fine for transferring or lending access media in connection with voice phishing, the Financial Supervisory Service designates them as a person subject to electronic financial transaction restrictions for 3 years; for imprisonment (including a suspended sentence), for 5 years.
Statutes are summarized. The official Korean text is available at the Korea Law Information Center (law.go.kr).
What matters is the card and the password
People often say they lent their bank account, but what the law punishes is the access medium. This covers the means and information used to give transaction instructions or verify your identity, such as debit or cash cards, certificates, user IDs and passwords. Even without handing over anything physical, giving out the information can count if it let the other person move money through your account.
Transferring means handing the account over entirely; lending means letting someone use it for a period without your control. Transferring is punished even without payment, but lending is punished only if payment was promised or you knew it would be used in a crime, so what was said and the messages exchanged when you handed it over matter.
A loan opportunity can also count as payment
Many people say they never received a single won and were only trying to get a loan. In a case where a person who would normally struggle to get a loan sent a debit card to build a transaction record and get a chance at a loan, the Supreme Court held that the opportunity could be payment for the lending (Supreme Court Decision 2017도16946, June 27, 2019).
That does not mean everyone is found guilty. The judgment differs depending on whether the other person convincingly posed as a financial company so that you could believe it was a normal procedure, whether you were to get the card back, and whether you reported it right after sensing something was wrong.
If the account was used for voice phishing
If victims' money comes into the account you handed over, the account is frozen (지급정지), and you may also be investigated for aiding fraud or as an accomplice. If you withdrew or sent money yourself, the allegations become much more serious.
There is an objection procedure for account freezes, but it has a deadline (Telecommunications Fraud Refund Act Article 7), and it is not accepted if the account holder is found to have known the account would be used for fraud or failed to know through gross negligence. Check right away when you receive the notice.
Factors That Affect the Outcome and Sentence
Factors that work against you
- · Received or agreed to receive money in return
- · Handed over several accounts or cards
- · Was also involved in withdrawals or transfers afterward
- · Large losses and many victims
- · A previous record for the same offense
Factors that work in your favor
- · Materials showing you could believe it was a loan process (impersonation documents, consultation records)
- · Signs you were to get the card back
- · Reported the card lost or went to the police as soon as you realized something was wrong
- · No actual gain
- · Making up for the harm
How Jisan Law's Criminal Law Center Responds
- 1
Checking how it was handed over
We check with chat records and courier waybills who asked for what and under what pretext.
- 2
Sorting out the scope of the allegations
Using the request to appear, we determine whether only the Electronic Financial Transactions Act violation is at issue or aiding fraud as well.
- 3
Mock questioning and sitting in
We practice in advance for questions about why you sent it and what you were to receive, and go into the questioning with you.
- 4
Submitting a written opinion
We submit a written opinion, with supporting materials, showing there was no payment arrangement or awareness of the crime, and the circumstances to consider in the decision.
Lawyers handling these cases
Hansol Kim Managing Partner
Former prosecutor at the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office, the Ansan Branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office and the Hongseong Branch of the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office
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Bonwoo Koo Managing Partner
Economic criminal cases such as Capital Markets Act violations, investment fraud, embezzlement and breach of trust
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Frequently asked questions
I only sent the card. I never received any money.
Payment includes not only money actually received but also a promise to receive it, and a chance to get a loan can also count. On the other hand, if there was no promise of payment and you did not know it would be used in a crime, it is hard to punish it as lending. What the other person said they would do for you at the time matters most.
Is lending my card to a family member a problem too?
If you let them use it briefly without any payment and did not know it would be used in a crime, the lending itself is not punished. However, transferring it outright is prohibited even without payment, and if the card is used in a crime, you will be investigated.
If I'm fined, will my banking be blocked?
In cases connected to voice phishing, you can be designated as a person subject to electronic financial transaction restrictions for 3 years from sentencing for a fine, or 5 years for imprisonment. If non-face-to-face transactions such as internet banking are blocked, daily life becomes very inconvenient, so we take this into account from the decision stage.