South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service is rebuilding the software used to return money to voice-phishing victims so it can compensate losses held in cryptocurrency, not just won, when revised refund rules take effect on Oct. 1. The updated system will calculate the specific token type and quantity owed to each victim and show the won value at the time a payment was frozen, addressing cases where stolen funds were converted into digital assets or taken as crypto from the outset. The overhaul also aims to handle scam proceeds that are split across multiple accounts and later recombined, and to pre-calculate claims in batches rather than one by one. The change follows a March 31 revision to the Telecommunications Fraud Damage Refund Act that brought virtual assets within the definitions of damaged and refundable property. Under the amendment, South Korean crypto exchanges including Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and GOPAX must adopt the same voice-phishing prevention and victim-relief duties as banks, including checking transaction purposes, monitoring suspected phishing funds, freezing flagged payments and helping return victim assets. The FSS said the system work will run from September through the end of November with a budget of 118.53 million won, while the law itself is due to take effect from October. The regulator has linked the update to cases in which stolen money is funneled through crypto and sent overseas, as telecom-based fraud losses in the country rose 14.1% to 433.8 billion won in 2025, the highest level in five years.